Endless Possibilities
by Wanda W
Summary: Here is a story that includes a bunch of the characters together at the same camp but is mainly Rogue-centric. The pairing is based on the results of the new poll on my profile page making it a Rogue/Gambit fic. It should be a lot of fun!
1. Chapter 1

**A.N.: Welcome to my new attempt at writing an Evo fic! This is somewhat A.U. and could go in many different directions depending upon the results of the new poll onn my profile page. What happens is ultimately all up to y'all. I look forward to seeing what you decide. Until then, I hope you enjoy this starter section. Let me know what you think; just no flames please.**

**Disclaimer: They aren't mine and I only wish I was making any kind of profit here. This ispurely a labor of love for the sheer enjoyment of all the possibilities these characters hold.**

"Kitty, Ah know you did not just throw mah CD in the rivah," Rogue ground out with her fist planted firmly on her cocked hip.

"Yeah, so what if I did?" Kitty shot back without thought. She was sick and tired of the other girl's bad attitude and her garnering all the attention around here. Between her and Jean it was like Kitty didn't even exist and she was worn out with it.

"So nothin'… Ah'm jest gonna kick your scrawny butt from here ta next week!"

"Right… as if!"

"Ugh! Do you have any ideah how stupid ya' sound all the tahme? Leahn to speak English fer cripes sake!"

Kitty burst out laughing at that… "What, like you? What a joke!"

"Thet's it!" Rogue burst out and shoved Kitty backwards into the water.

Before the younger girl could finish spitting the water from her mouth, Toad had leapt atop a large rock, drawing everyone's attention. "Hey! Yo, yo guys! Chick fight!" his gleeful voice shouted.

"What?" Scott demanded. He raced to the scene to make sure none of the institute's residents were getting out of line. Once he took in all that was happening he immediately tried to intervene. "Kitty! Rogue! Stop it right now," he tried for a stern voice.

Kitty just looked at him while Rogue faced him dead on. "Scott, ya' don't wanna get into this. Ya' know ah can kick yer butt." She never raised her voice, but it still seemed like she had.

Jean came to stand beside her 'not boyfriend' and Kitty gave the practically perfect teen a glare that could freeze molten lava. "Like, don't even think about it, Jean," she spat.

Scott was still ready to break it up, but Logan of all people brought that idea to a screeching standstill. "Leave 'em," he grunted. "This has been a long time comin' and they need to just get it over with."

Lance sauntered up with the comment, "My money's on Rogue."

"What!" Kitty wanted to know.

The tall, handsome bad boy only shrugged one shoulder. "She's stronger, she can suck you dry, and she's got a LOT of anger…." Now he smirked. "That and she's not a total tease like some people. When she says something, she backs it up."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

Wanda stalked up and stood with her brother, Pietro, who was giving the confrontation his full attention. "What, you didn't get it?"

"I am like so sick of this! Why does anyone even like you? You are such a jerk all the time!"

"At least Ah'm not a spoiled little brat who thinks tha whole world oughta be in love with meh jest for existin'." Rogue shot back before the other girl could even think.

Not knowing what else to do and at her wit's end, Kitty reached out from the frigid water and yanked Rogue's ankle upending the other girl so they were now both soaking wet. Several others from the institute had now joined the group gathered by the river. They'd all been sent back to the same camp as before for another survival/teamwork week. It wasn't even day two and they were already engaging in a battle royal no one, with the possible exception of Logan, had even seen coming.

When Rogue rose up wiping the water and layers of goth make-up away as she came, many of the males present began watching even more intently than before. Frankly, Kitty never exactly went out of her way to hide her supposed assets, but this was a new and rather exciting view of the Rogue and it wasn't one any of them would be forgetting any time soon.

"Well, I'll be-," Logan wisely cut off the choice words he was about to utter in his shock at the decidedly luscious package one of 'his' girls had been hiding away.

"You've got that right!" Lance readily agreed. Freddie just stared at them both, practically drooling. Toad hopped once while declaring, "Rogue is stacked, yo!"

Wanda rolled her eyes while Jean glanced self-consciously down at herself. She couldn't be sure due to the glasses, but she had the feeling Scott was as pleased with this new view as the other guys. Tabitha was smirking and privately rooting for Rogue to finally dish out what the little twit Kitty had been, in her opinion, begging for ever since she'd first met her.

Before Kitty realized there was really going to be a fight, Rogue had drawn her fist back and let it fly straight into Kitty's face. Rogue stood over the sobbing girl, feet slightly spread and hands on her hips, her stance pulling her sopping shirt taut across a rather generous chest.

Kitty struggled to her feet, holding her pained face and bracing herself for battle. "Bring it, freak! Why don't you try it when I'm like ready for you?"

"Whatevah! You are so pathetic! You should always be ready, kitten. The bad guys aren't going to give you a start time, you know." When Kitty lunged at Rogue, the older girl simply dodged it with a slight sway to the right and then used one foot to kick Kitty's feet out from under her. Rogue looked down on Kitty where she sprawled sputtering in the water. Not completely unkindly she advised, "Ef yer smart ye'll let it go now, Kit. Thar's no reason ta keep goin' and let ya' get really hurt."

Rogue, assuming it was over since she'd trounced Kitty so easily and thoroughly, turned and began climbing back up the bank. While still hiking her dripping self up past the muddy bit of dirt before the grass, she suddenly saw nothing but darkness. Kitty had phased up right in front of her and smeared mud over her roommate's entire front. Rogue swiped the sludge off her face and shook both hands to free them from the muck. "Thet's it, Prahde!" Raw anger coated every syllable of the warning. "Ya' heard meh, Logan… I trahd to let et go… I trahd ta let 'er walk away." Emerald green eyes shone with an unholy flame.

"Yeah, I heard ya' Stripes. Ya' did good."

"So Ah'm in tha clear?"

"Go for it, kid. I've got your back with Charles."

Rogue nodded and they all knew it was on. Honestly Logan liked Kitty Pryde all right. He had no real issue with the little princess. She was in many ways less a pain in the butt than most of 'em. But the way he saw it, when it came to Rogue, Kitty had it coming. In fact, if he was Jean he'd clear out of the line of fire, too. Both girls had unknowingly, and sometimes with full knowledge, made things far rougher on Rogue than they'd needed to be and they'd often made her feel less important, less a woman with a woman's needs and hopes. He was only surprised Rogue hadn't kicked their butts a long time ago.

He'd meant what he said, too. There was no way he was going to let her take the fall for this. Logan inclined his head in what may have seemed to be a random direction, but which the Acolytes knew was an acknowledgement of their presence. "That southern belle is one fiery girl, eh?"

Remy didn't tear his eyes away from the beautiful fille for an instant. He simply smirked. "That she is, ami. The femme is somet'in else!"

Even with Kitty's phasing to elude Rogue's strikes, the fight was over in short order. By the end of it, Rogue's shirt was torn in several places and plastered to her watery, streaked with mire body. Toad, while he enjoyed this unforeseen development as much as any guy would, had always sincerely liked Rogue. Most of the brotherhood did, in fact. "Yo, Rogue – good job!"

"Thanks, Todd," she muttered. The embarrassed, dirty young woman allowed Logan to help her up the embankment with a steady pull on her extended hand. Lance waited with a towel which he tossed to her, trying not to look too hard at his former housemate. Scott was very thankful for his need to wear sunglasses so no one would realize just what he was looking at while Jubilee slapped a hand over Bobby's runaway mouth.

Only Alex, visiting his brother during his school break, was willing to be completely candid. "Dude, Rogue you look so hot…" he declared boldly while his eyes raked over the obvious effects of the chilly water on her body through her now see-through shirt and followed down her jeans that clung to each and every curve and dip of her sculpted legs. In fact, thanks to their little scuffle, Rogue's typical camouflage was failing to hide her delicious silhouette from the many males in her life.

"Shut it, surfer _boy_!" Her emphasis on the last word left no doubt regarding her implication.

The two girls stalked off in the same direction, but kept their distance from one another. "What was so bad about mah music enyway, Kit?"

Kitty shrugged one shoulder and admitted in low tones, "Nothing, really. I just, like, got so mad all of a sudden that I like totally couldn't help myself."

Rogue stopped to face one of the closest things to a friend she had. "Whah? Whut did Ah do?"

Kitty also stopped. "You didn't do anything. You just, like, I don't know… Jean's so perfect and you're so cool without even trying to be or meaning it and it's like SO unfair!" She actually stomped a foot in anger and frustration.

"Oh puh-lease! Lahke enyone wants enythin' to do with tha untouchable goth. Face it, Kit, Ah'm a freak among freaks…. Even y'all at the institute don't want much ta do with meh. I ken name about three people who aren't totally freaked bah jest tha thought of meh touchin' them." She stared directly at the other girl. "Ah don' wanna be mean or enythin', but ya' need to grow up an' get ovah it girl."

They started walking again, but this time they were side by side. After several minutes of silence while they both digested all that they'd said to one another Kitty commented while still looking ahead, "You're like totally wrong you know."

"What?"

"Everyone wants to be one of the chosen few to get close to you. There's just something about being in that inner circle that makes it really mean something to be your friend, you know?"

"No. Not really." Rogue looked extremely uncomfortable for a second. "Okay, so are we done with this girly crap?"

Kitty giggled, showing she'd never really be 'done' with the girly thing and agreed. With a speed understood only by teenaged girls or those who used to be one, they were friends again, all disagreements set aside. "Ya're still buyin' me a new CD, though," Rogue asserted.

"Like yeah… okay," Kitty blew it off.

Both girls turned at the sound of a familiar, though not welcome, voice. "Kitty, your butt looks totally hawt in those wet shorts, yo!"

"Ew!" she squealed. "That's like so gross!"

Lance, following closely behind his teammate, smacked him in the back of the head with the ease of long practice. "Shut up, Toad."

"Hey! Yo, Rogue's got a totally great a-," he cut his announcement short when he felt Lance smack him again, even harder this time. "What!" he wanted to know.

"Don't talk about my girl that way," Lance warned ominously.

"Oh yeah? Which one?" Toad taunted in his squeaky little voice. He smirked at Lance's grimace of discomfort.

Before Lance could do anything to shut him up, Logan had Toad by the scruff of the neck. "Shut it, Bub. Nobody talks about my girls that way, got it?" he snarled as only he could.

"Yeah… yeah, I got it!" Toad groveled. He was flung away without a second glance.

"Hey, Stripes," Logan got her attention as he approached, his button-down shirt in hand and clad only in his jeans. "You'd better put this on until you get cleaned up."

"What for?" Rogue was totally bewildered and not thinking entirely clearly. The sight of Logan bare-chested tended to do that to her… and every other female in a three mile radius.

"Uh," he grunted not sure how to explain without embarrassing himself and her. He gestured vaguely to her torso. "Your shirt's a little messed up, uh, there." She looked down where he'd indicated, and now that she'd paused to notice it was the same area where Lance and Toad were gazing fixedly also. Her ripped shirt was still wet enough to cling in most places, but as it dried slightly had started to sag where it was ripped… exposing way too much of her chest. A second rip bared an expanse of toned, pale stomach.

Her husky accent came thick as molasses. "Oh, uh, thanks." Her shamed eyes darted from one person to another rapidly. She tugged the shirt on as quickly as possible. Rogue shrugged it over her mortified, hunched upper body then noted how large it was on her. The sleeves hung far beyond her fingertips. Uncaring how silly she may look, she simply turned and hurried away towards the X-Men's cabin.

In her room, she sank onto the side of the bed and heaved a great sigh. "Way ta look lahke a fool, girl," she chided herself.

"Remy don' know 'bout dat, cher…. He t'inks ya look tres belle."

She had initially jumped in surprise, but it didn't take long for her to slip into the ready anger that had served so well over the years. "How'd ya' git in here, Swamp Rat?"

"Ya' know bettah than t'ask dat, cher. A t'ief nevah shares his secrets," he whispered intimately as he neared her and crowded in so close it was a miracle she hadn't already accidentally dropped him with a brush of her skin. "Ya' oughtta go au natural more often, Roguey… ya' lovely," he murmured so close to her face that she felt the brush of his breath against her pale cheek. One gloved knuckle rose to stroke her creamy, smoothly immaculate jaw line.

"What are ya' doin' heah," she whispered, never realizing how vulnerable she both looked and sounded in that moment.

"De same as always." He felt no shame admitting, "Ah'm here ta watch ovah mon beb."

"Ah'm not yer sweetheart," she gruffly tried to assert, but the breathy quality to her normally harsher voice revealed the statement for what it was; a lie.

"Tu _are_ Remy's darling." He let his fingertips glide down her arm, grazing over and clinging to her gloved fingers. "You always will be, petite."

"Whah ahre ya' really here, Rems?" she whispered up at him. His presence was already calming her harried thoughts, as the fading of her accent showed.

"Jes' keepin' an eye on t'ings for Mags an' watchin' ovah ya'," he murmured. "Et's verah nice dat work lets Remy keep up wit' his beb dis way. Remy knows his chérie not hurt on de outside, but how ya' doin' odderwise Roguey?"

She sighed before acknowledging internally how well he knew her. Her low, husky voice addressed the hands loosely clasped in her lap. "Ah don't know what ta' think. Kit an' Ah are okay again, but she really caught me off-guard with some o' what she said, ya' know?"

Even though he had no idea what the girls had said to one another, he did know what it was like to discover someone close to you was hiding their real feelings. "Oui, cher," he answered, encouraging her to continue.

"Ah jest dunno where she got some if that junk."

"What de petite say 'xactly mon beb?"

One of her pale, dirty, gloved hands flipped up in a dismissive gesture as she spoke more assertively. "Ah dunno. Jest some crap about meh bein' 'cool'," her fingers made air quotes as she said it. "Then she said somethin' 'bout meh choosin' people an' ev'ryone wantin' ta' be part of it all." Rolling her eyes she huffed, "Ah don't even know what she was talkin' about!"

A slim, strong shoulder lifted with false negligence. "It just came outta nowhere," she mumbled. Rogue wasn't even sure why she was telling the Cajun anything. He was older and had experienced so much of life that this all probably just seemed stupid to him.

He settled beside her on the bed, friendly but not his usual flirtatious self. Remy was trying to pick up on her feelings and to take them seriously. "Well, belle beb, et seems to Remy dat mebbe dere be sum kinda jealous t'ing goin' on here. Truth be dat de kitten be de one wit' de problem an' dere be not'ing ya can do 'bout et." He picked up one of her hands to cradle it in his own. His fingers traced hers, examining them in minute detail.

Swinging her head to the side to look at him from behind the curtain of her hair, Rogue fought back the smile wanting to creep over her lips. He really could be so sweet sometimes. No one else from the mansion really knew this side of him, but this sincere and gentle aspect of Remy was what made her so susceptible to his charms. "Ah really am fahne, ya know. Et's jest tha normal teen angst stuff. Ya' didn' need ta bothah with meh."

Tugging on a lock of whitened hair, he smiled tenderly on her. "Et's no bot'er, mon beb. Remy's jes' glad to know ya all right. Now, ya need ta showah an' Remy's t'inkin' ya won' wanna do dat wit' him in de room," he rose with sleek grace to his feet.

She laughed at him and gave him a playful shove against his thigh. "Ya got thet raht, sugah!" He chuckled with her before leaning over to drop a quick, warm kiss on top of her head. Letting his fingers stroke through her hair as he pulled back he winked before swinging himself out of the window.

"Ya need anyt'ing, Remy be dere ta take care o' it, beb," his voice carried back.

Rogue's head tilted to one side. She was about to retort that he wouldn't know if she needed him or not half the time, but realized it wasn't true. Every time she'd really been in need, even over stupid things like some of the anti-mutant idiots at Bayville High, he'd been there for her, watching her back. Now he was even showing up to help her with some chick garbage with Kitty. A tiny smile graced her full lips as she turned for the bathroom.

Before she'd made it as far as the duffel holding her clean clothes another unexpected arrival interrupted her progress. "Hey Stripes!" Logan's voice came through the wood door gruff, slightly embarrassed, but clear.

She opened the door and stood back to let him enter. "Hey, Logan." When they were alone, she dropped the Mister and simply addressed him by his first name. It had been that way ever since she'd lost control of her powers and woken in the med bay to find him watching over her, helping her cope. Logan really understood Rogue, which was something rare and special and they both knew it. Not many had experienced the kinds things in life the two of them had gone through. Their bond was unique and they knew it without ever bothering to get all 'emotional' or talk it to death.

"You okay?" was all he asked as he leaned against the wall, his ankles crossed in front of him.

"Yeah, Ah'm fahne."

He gave a sniff as his sensitive nose picked up a distinctive scent. "Gumbo was here?"

"Gambit jest wanted to check on meh, Ah think. He's gone now, though… nothin' ta worrah about."

He nodded, accepting her evaluation. Logan wasn't at all surprised the younger man had come by to check on her. The two of them shared something similar to his relationship with the girl. Similar, but not exactly the same. While he might readily acknowledge his girls were each beautiful in their own ways, he knew the Cajun saw something special in Rogue. Logan's only concern was that the player would hurt her… unintentionally most likely, but hurt her nonetheless. It was as he was leaving Kitty's room, after dealing with the foreigner waving in the breeze outside her window having put the Fear of Logan in the guy, that he recognized the scent and sound of the Cajun from behind his Rogue's door. Logan didn't see a real need to run the guy off, but wanted to go on record anyway so he went on in.

"You need anything?" He dealt far more comfortably with the practical than with all the teen drama that could crop up so quickly.

"Nah," she declined. Rogue flicked her hair out of her face and placed one hand on her hip. "Truth is, she had it comin'. Ah went pretty easy on her and we're fahne now." She laid one hand on his arm to make sure his attention was centered on her. "Thanks for backin' meh up out there." Logan never flinched away when she touched him, his trust in her innate. He was one of the very few people who never made her feel isolated. It was pretty ironic since he was such a loner himself most of the time.

"Sure thing, Stripes. I'm there every time. You just let me know and I'll have you covered."

She rose on tiptoe to brush a very quick kiss over his now flushed cheek. "Ah know. And ya' will nevah know how much that means ta meh."

He only grunted before shoving away from the wall. "You've got company again," he stated before pushing the door open further with one hand and letting the young man outside it know, "You've got five minutes and the door stays open, Rockslide." Tripping over Lance on the way out and finding the kid wanting to hound dog after Rogue rather than Kitty surprised him a bit.

Lance only rolled his eyes and sauntered in as if he owned the place. He and Logan both knew Rogue could drop him in a heartbeat if she felt threatened. Logan gave her a penetrating look before heading out the door, conspicuously leaving it ajar as he left. They could hear him muttering something about Acolytes and Brotherhood boys haunting the place as he swaggered away. Rogue gave up on the shower for now. Her room was busier than Grand Central Station at the moment. She scooted onto the bed and crossed her legs, settling comfortably back against the headboard while Lance easily sat at the other end, his legs stretched out and one arm holding him upright. They'd sat like this so many times just talking after everyone else was in bed at night back at the Brotherhood house. It felt just like old times.

"Shouldn't you be checkin' on Kitty about now?" she wondered with a smirk.

He hiked up one shoulder. "I'm sure she's fine. You didn't hurt anything serious… just her pride." He leaned back until his elbows supported his torso. "She's right about a few things, you know."

One brow rose as she wondered what he was getting at. He studied her closely as he continued, "People feel like their special, like they've really done something if you decide to really let them in. It's because you don't do it very often." He gave her a small, light kick with one foot adding, "And you're cool, I guess." His smirk could cause flutters in half the female hearts in Bayville. They just didn't get to see it very often without it being followed by some kind of earthquake. "What makes you cool, though, is that you don't really care if you are or not."

Both brows lifted in disbelief now. "Yeah, Lance. That made sense." He laughed a very small bit before laying back, his arms crossed behind his head.

"We miss you," he commented, his voice sounding very off-hand and nonchalant. She wasn't fooled, though.

Knowing how sincere he was being and remembering the many times she'd wished he was there at the mansion with her she crawled down to lay beside him, her head resting on one of his arms. He shifted over to give her more room, but didn't dislodge her from her resting place. A sigh drifted from her… it carried sadness, appreciation, and contentedness. She was sad that they weren't as quietly and subtly close as they'd been before. Rogue appreciated that here was the other man who'd never hesitated or flinched when she neared him except when they were in the field fighting and he knew she was going to drop him. And her content came from enjoying the easy association they'd shared in the past… when things were simpler in some ways. "Ah miss ya', too," was all she said, though.

They lay like that, neither speaking, for half an hour more before hearing Logan huffing and snarling his way back to them. Lance wisely got off the bed before Wolverine arrived on the scene. He leaned over, though, and mumbled awkwardly, "Don't let them get to you, okay? And if they do, just come home. There's always room for you."

She swatted at his hand that had tickled her stomach through Logan's oversized shirt before smiling at him more genuinely than most ever witnessed. "Thanks." Lance passed Logan just down from her door and gave him a sly look on his way by. Logan just growled and stalked on his way. Hearing the shower start running, he knew she was alone at last and he went to sit with the day's paper in the common room.

He sat with the pages rumpled in his fists on his lap. At this point he wouldn't be surprised to turn around and find Magneto brewing a pot of tea while Mystique offered everyone scones. You'd think the Acolytes and Brotherhood had been invited to move in with them the way those boys were parading in and out of windows this afternoon! First there was that Russian dude dangling from Kitty's windowsill when he went to check out a suspicious noise.

He didn't know how long that had been going on. Logan had given up on keeping tabs on Kitty's romantic life a long time ago. She changed guys like most people changed socks. He'd thought Lance was the one hanging after her these days, but maybe the guy had finally wised up. Lance was one of the few kids he had much use for. He figured it was because he could relate to the kid. He reminded Logan a lot of himself. When Lance had given up on the mansion and moved back to the Brotherhood house, Logan and Rogue were both disappointed if not surprised.

Finding him coming to see Rogue just after chasing the Tin Man out of Kitty's room and hearing Bayou Boy handling Rogue was an unexpected revelation, though. That was one he didn't see coming, although he supposed it made sense. If he were younger he'd be sniffing around Rogue himself. It only seemed logical to him that the smarter guys would do the same. The fact that they were both a bit rough around the edges didn't escape his notice. His girl had a way with the wild ones. With no effort at all she could tame the wildest men. Effort… truth was he didn't think she even wanted them tamed. It was just something about her that did it to them. Logan was honest enough to realize he was as whipped as those two boys, too. She didn't know it, but little Rogue had several men firmly under her thumb.

A few minutes later she came into the room and settled near him, her hair still damp and wearing none of her usual make-up. He looked at her from the corner of his eye, but didn't step out of his typical gruff shell. "I like the new look," he commented brusquely without looking at her directly.

She looked uncomfortable, but gave a tiny, shy smile at her lap. "Thanks. Ah just thought Ah wouldn't bothah for now."

He grunted. "It's nice seein' you 'stead of all that stuff you put on."

She didn't say anything, only reaching towards his lap where she rifled through the pages littering his thighs until she found the section she wanted and slipped it away from him. Logan shook the remaining pages into a better position and actually gave them some real attention this time. She leaned against his arm, which was now covered by another of his typical shirts, and read her own pages. The unlikely pair shared a comfortable half hour of silence before the sounds of several people at the door interrupted their solitude. They each smothered sighs at the loss of companionable ease and moved to lay aside the newspaper, going their separate ways for now.

It was much later that night that two pairs of glowing eyes watched over her as she slept. Logan, doing a sweep outside, scented out the pair peering through her half opened window. He rumbled out a growl. One presence was acceptable, the other… well, no matter what kinds of alliances Charles was trying to form, the other presence had no business lurking around Rogue. He heard an answering snarl and knew he'd made his point. Soon, only the Bayou boy remained. The two gave one another a silent salute and Logan went on his way.

The morning had a loud-mouthed camp employee rousing them just before the sun made its appearance. Rogue groaned before rolling over and burying her head under her pillow. "Ugh! Et's not raht… no sane person gits up this earlah!" Without meaning to, she slipped back into sleep and almost missed being on time for their first task of the day. She raced into the clearing in the middle of the cabins and skidded to a halt near Jean. Being late prevented her from conducting her usual routine that morning so her face was fresh-scrubbed, even tiny freckles showing on her nose, and her hair was pulled into a ponytail with white locks slipping free to curve around her pristine face.

Kitty handed her a tube of sunscreen which Rogue applied to her milky-white face and neck while they listened to the director and Logan describing the day's tasks. "This morning you will be assigned to teams that will be given trails to clean and clear. After lunch each group will run the trust trail. It's a series of obstacles that will promote teamwork and trust between all of you."

The groups were called out with Logan warning against any whining or he would eviscerate the offenders. His coffee in hand, he called out, "Scott, Kitty, Fred, Wanda… you four will work on the trail north of camp." He consulted the list in his hand before gesturing at Lance. "Alvers; Kurt, Tabitha, Jean, and you will take the trail west of the grounds." He turned to those who were left. Before speaking, he shook his head at the still disoriented Rogue and held out his coffee mug to her. She clasped it with desperation and brought it up to breathe deeply of the aroma that would make her eyes open to something wider than the squinty slits which were all anyone had seen so far. Kitty gave her friend a comforting pat on the shoulder while Rogue's face disappeared behind the rim of the cup to reappear with a tiny smile of satisfaction. Logan bit back a chuckle at her pathetic, yet typical early morning state and got back to the business at hand.

"Pietro, Rogue, Toad, and Alex will work on the trail along the river." Before the whining and complaints could really begin flowing, he used the now folded sheet of paper to point at them all. "No complaining or you'll be assigned to me. Get busy and be back here by eleven o'clock. I and the other supervisors will be checking on each team randomly throughout the morning, so look sharp. If we find you aren't working, I'm in charge of dealing with problems." His threat wasn't an empty or an idle one and they all knew it.

"You get half an hour before I expect to see you working so don't take too long over breakfast." Before they could make much headway in the direction of the main lodge, Logan called out to Rogue. She trudged back to him, looking sulky.

"Ya'r so mean," she grunted holding out the mug he'd given her. He did chuckle now.

"Keep it, Stripes. That's not what I wanted."

"Oh." She breathed deeply, relief flooding her features. "Oh thank goodness! Ah reallah do need this!" She drank deeply again, dissatisfaction washing over her as she realized that with that last draught, the coffee was gone. The pair began slowly following the others. "So, what d'ya need from meh?"

"Well, I know Gumbo dropped by yesterday and I just wanted to warn you to be careful. He's not alone and they haven't gone yet. Truth is, I'm gonna be keeping an eye on your group myself for security reasons, but I want you on your guard, too."

She looked a bit confused, but immediately assented. She knew of no reason the Acolytes would be focused on her, but rarely argued with Logan over this type of thing. "Sure thang, Logan." They didn't say anything more as they took their places at the end of the line waiting for their chance to eat. She grabbed a bowl of fruit, a slice of toast, and another very full mug of coffee before taking her tray to a nearby table. She nibbled at her food while keeping her focus on the important thing… the coffee. She knew that without it, she'd be useless.

Five bites of fruit and two bites of toast later, just as she relished the final swallow of that heavenly nectar known as coffee, Logan shoved back from the table. That was everyone's cue to head out and they knew it. Depositing their dirty items in the water-filled tubs to soak for the kitchen staff, they trooped outside.

Each group headed in their assigned direction after gathering the tools that would help them get the job done. Rogue was reaching for some tools to tote when Pietro took them from her hands. "HereRogueletmegetthatforyou." Before she could ask him to repeat what he'd said slower for her he was gone. Shrugging she reached for the garbage bag they'd use for any trash they found, but it too was tugged away.

"I got it, yo," Toad said with an easy smile.

"Thanks, Todd." Her returning smile was sincere. He might be kind of gross, but Todd was a fairly good guy and never bothered putting on an act or anything. With him everything was simple. What you saw was what you got and she could appreciate that since so many things in her life were so complicated. Besides, she'd always felt like a lot of the time he was given a harder time than he deserved.

They began traipsing towards the river, Alex not far behind them. "So, that was some show you and the Kitten gave us yesterday," he commented.

"I dunno whah y'all had ta come along and watch lahke that." She rolled her eyes while commenting, "Git a lahfe!"

"Are you kidding? That was better than watching Baywatch reruns!" he chuckled.

Toad, leaping alongside her wanted to know, "You and Kitty seemed alright this morning. Did you get it all worked out?"

Rogue sighed, "Yeah. She was jest havin' a weird postal moment er somethin'. Et's fahne now."

They'd finally caught up with Pietro now, who was reclining against a rock, hands crossed behind his head. "Ittookyouguyslongenough!"

Rogue stood, legs slightly apart and fists propped on her hips, looking around speculatively. "So, where do y'all wanna start?" It didn't take long to agree on a course of action and they went to work. Normally the guys would goof off a lot more, but knowing Wolverine would be coming by at some point to make sure they'd gotten enough done kept them motivated.

Rogue was lifting a large fallen branch from the path to shift it deeper into the woods, when she felt someone lay their hand on her shoulder. "I'll do that Rogue," Pietro said with a real effort to keep it slow.

"Ah can get it, ya' know," she assured before letting him ease her aside.

"I know. Youdon'tneedto,though," he blurted with the slightest flush staining his pale cheeks. Not knowing what was going on, but not seeing any reason to make it a big deal, she shrugged it off with an, "Okay. Thanks, Pietro." He watched the sway of her hips as she moved away before giving his attention to the task at hand.

Before she reached the area where Alex and Toad were busy fixing a small bridge connecting the two sides of the river, a sound from beside the path distracted her. Remembering what Logan said earlier, she kept her body loose and slightly bent her knees ready to fight should the need arise.

"Hey! Relax, Rogue… it's just me," came Alex's laid-back surfer accent. She breathed out and assumed a more natural stance.

"What ahr ya' doin' over heah? I thought ya' were helpin' Todd with tha' bridge."

"It was time for a break and I knew just who to go looking for," his insinuating tone and cocksure smirk were enough to make her both confused and nervous.

She decided to play it off by acting tough, like she always did when confronted with a situation that made her uncomfortable. "An' what's that supposed ta' mean?"

He swaggered up to her and leaned in far too close. She arched away, but refused to take the step back she desperately desired. Rogue would show no weakness. "Yesterday really showed me a new way of seeing you, Rogue." His eyes slowly perused her figure, not even trying to disguise where they lingered. "I know how lonely you must get… you know, with the whole skin thing and all." Now one hand reached for her arm, which she yanked away. All that did was send his hand towards her hair. "It doesn't have to be like that, though. Isolated, always on the outside looking in…." His voice had dropped and grown low, soft, and husky with meaning.

"Ahre ya' crazeh?" Her gloved hand smacked his away. "Get offa meh!"

"C'mon Rogue!" he coaxed. "We both know you've got to be-."

"Do nawt even _think_ about finishin' that sentence, jerk!" She shoved him backwards, an angry fire lighting her green eyes.

Before any more could be said, some new voices came from the woods behind the pair and joined the conversation. "I don't think the sheila wants to ride your wave, Havok." Pyro's maniacal laughter rang out, letting Toad and Pietro know he was there. Pietro was there in mere seconds.

"What'sgoingon?" he demanded.

Gambit lazily shuffled cards from one hand to another from his position propped against a tree trunk. "De homme seems ta t'ink Roguey be wantin' some comp'ny, ain't dat 'bout raht?"

Alex swallowed loudly just as Toad hopped onto the scene. His nervous eyes flitted from one person to another as he tried to figure out what he'd missed. "Ah'll nevah be _that_ lonely!" the sassy girl asserted, her finger jabbing Scott's brother in the chest.

Finally having put up with all he could take of this public embarrassment, he straightened and spouted off, "It's not like you'll be getting any other offers! I mean, not many would risk being near a freak who could kill with just one touch." She wouldn't let it show, but that really stung Rogue. She knew how others felt about her, but it still hurt when someone callously blurted it out like that. The only thing to give away her pain was the momentary rapid blinking of her suddenly watery eyes.

The last person she ever would have thought of as a defender suddenly roared in outrage and snatched Alex up like a rag doll, dangling the young man by his shirtfront and baring huge teeth in his pale, frightened face. "Shut up, you-," he was cut short by Logan's arrival.

"That's enough," he asserted calmly. This was met with a low, rumbling growl from the other mutant. "Sabertooth, drop the kid. I'll handle him."

Reluctance clear in every movement he tilted his head to the side, got in the boy's face to snarl one last time, and tossed him to the ground a few feet away. "See that you do handle him, Runt, or I'll be back to take care of it." He turned wild, feral eyes on Rogue's stunned face, raked them over her body checking for injuries and leaped out of sight with the cracking of limbs and rustling of leaves serving as the only indications of where he'd gone.

"You three finish up while I have a chat with little Summers here," Logan's angry eyes bore into the others until they each moved away. Rogue was the last to go. She was too busy glaring at Scott's brother to realize what Logan had said. When she finally started to move away her glinting green eyes turned to her mentor and friend and registered the barely perceptible nod he sent her way. With a final narrowing of her stare at the boy who'd so offended and hurt her, she went back to work with Pietro and Todd.

As soon as everyone was out of sight, Logan snatched Alex up by his shirtfront and pinned him to the nearest tree trunk. "You will never, **never ****mess with her again; you got that, bub?"**

**"Look, I was only trying to," Alex tried to defend, but Logan cut him off.**

**"I know exactly what you were trying to do and you'd better realize just how lucky you are that I'm not skewering you right now. I don't wanna hear another word outta you. Get over there, get to work, and know that I am going to be watching you the rest of the day. Maybe you'll see me, maybe you won't… but you can be certain that I'm here." Logan lowered the boy to his feet but before the kid took two hesitant steps away he heard the Wolverine rumble out, "And you'd better watch your step 'cuz I'm not the only one with his eye on you. Next time there'll be no warning, just blood."**

**Alex gulped nervously before rejoining his assigned work group on the last section of their path. Seeing how pale he was Rogue almost felt sorry for him and decided to just let it go. Todd didn't say anything, but he did make a point of staying in between the young blond and the girl who was one of his few real friends, shooting the occasional glare towards the plasma ray shooting mutant. Pietro zoomed over so fast when Rogue went to retrieve another bag that Alex was shocked by the silver-haired boy who suddenly appeared mere inches from his face. "Back off," he warned in his most menacing voice before racing away again. Rogue never realized he'd left his place, but Todd chuckled a little bit at the whole incident. An hour later their group traipsed back to deposit the tools in the same place they'd been laying that morning.**

**Along with everyone else, they went to their respective cabins to clean up before lunch. Rogue took a quick shower and toweled her hair dry a bit before turning her attention to applying her make-up. She met up with Kitty and Jean in the hall and the three girls walked over to the dining cabin together, talking about their rough morning. "You know how Tabby and Kurt are when they get together… They hardly worked at all!" Jean couldn't hold back a sigh which was quickly followed by a tiny giggle. "They were pretty funny sometimes, though," she admitted.**

**"Yeah, well if you think that's bad… Blob like kept staring at me all the time. When I finally asked him what his deal was he said something about how pretty I looked when Rogue beat me up yesterday. Can you believe it?" The other two laughed out loud at this so hard that Kitty couldn't help joining in. She shrugged a little. "I guess it was a compliment, in a way."**

**"He really isn't that bad, you know. He just never really learned much about social interaction," Jean commented generously.**

**"Fred's actually kinda sweet when ya' get to know him bettah," Rogue asserted. The other two looked shocked. "What?" she demanded. "Just because Ah'm not little miss sunshine and lollypops doesn't mean Ah'm the devil's handmaiden ya' know! Ah do have nahce thoughts sometahmes!" This just made their jaws drop even more. Rogue rolled her eyes in disgust and stalked off to get a bottle of water as they'd now entered the shady room.**

**She snatched up her water and slammed it on her tray before grabbing up food without really paying much attention to what she took. When her head whipped around to scope out the tables everyone else dropped their eyes or looked somewhere else just in case she decided to be mad at them, too. She finally grunted, sounding very much like a softer-pitched Wolverine in a bad mood, before taking her tray outside and settling on a convenient boulder under a huge tree's dappled shade. The slight breeze ruffled her hair and she sighed with content before eating voraciously. A glance behind her showed the others all depositing their trays so she moved inside to do the same. The few moments alone had done her much good and she stood with everyone else in a relatively good humor.**

**Logan swaggered out to stand before them and declared, "Awright, there's been a change of plans." Before the murmuring could get rolling too well, he barked out, "The trust course is gonna be run in different groupings now. The girls'll run it together first then the guys. After everyone's done you can have some free time until dinner."**

**While they knew the course would be rough, at least there was going to be a little bit of a break waiting for them afterwards. Most of the group quickly agreed to go for a swim later. While Rogue knew she could wear her wetsuit to minimize the risks, she knew she just wasn't up for that today.**

**First things first, though… and first their entire team had to successfully complete the course stretching before them through the woods. It started with a rope climb, followed by a zip line which then led to the tire traverse and the spider web. After that they went on to face the rope bridge over the chasm and then rappelling down the wall that extended down from the cliff. At the bottom they dealt with the A-frame, worked through the floating log section, and then constructed a raft of the supplied materials before navigating down that section of the river before reaching the end.**

**The girls looked at one another before starting towards the start. "Come on, girls! We can do it as long as we work together!" Rogue tried to hold back her annoyance at Jean's over-exuberant attempt to encourage them.**

**Seeing Wanda's hands move to form a hex, Rogue tried to intervene. "Let's just get this over with so we can move on ta that free tahme he prahmised us." As Tabitha, Jean, Rogue, Wanda, and Kitty lined up at the start, Tabby rubbed her hands together in anticipation while surveying the layout. Producing a couple of her trademark balls of power, her eyes lit with that fun-loving spirit that always seemed to land her in trouble.**

**Logan loomed up behind the girls about that time and let them know in no uncertain terms, "No powers." Hearing how firmly he spoke, they knew he meant it. Tabby grumbled, but she tossed the glowing orbs away to explode harmlessly in the underbrush. The guys were smirking as though they already knew the girls would fail and that was all it took for the five of them to rally. **

**One of the young men uttered something disparaging that almost sounded like, "This ought to be pretty funny," and that got Kitty riled up.**

**"Let's show 'em how it's done, girls." Rogue tried not to laugh at the look of disbelief painted across Wanda's features. She barely turned her head but it was enough that Logan would be the only one to hear her words. **

**"Fer the love of all thet's holy, Logan, let's get goin' on this thing."**

**He shoved aside the whistle the cam employee was trying to force on him and simply bellowed, "Go!"**

**That was all it took to send the girls racing towards their first obstacle, the rope climb. They all arrived at about the same time to begin scrabbling up the high grid of ropes. Even Jean was impressed as Kitty blew past her and reached the top first, calling down encouragement to the others. Tabby brought up the rear, but wasn't too far behind the rest as they turned together to face their next challenge. "Who's going first?" Jean was asking when a piercingly loud, "Wooooohooooo!!" carried through the air as Tabby flew past gleefully embracing the excitement and risk of the zipline.**

**Wanda shrugged and took the handle next to be followed by Rogue, then Jean and then Kitty, who was a good bit more nervous than the others. She was reassured by their success and by Tabby's cries of, "You can do it Shadowcat!"**


	2. Chapter 2

Once they had Kitty safely landed at the other end, the girls turned to face the tires

**A.N.:**** This is an AU Evo story where there are lots of the characters involved. It will mainly focus, though, on Rogue. According to the poll results, a big part of things will revolve around a developing relationship between Rogue and Remy. The people have spoken and I will obey. This took a long time to write, but these chapters are fairly long so it takes awhile (between 13 and 16 pages each).**

**Disclaimer:**** They aren't mine and this isn't giving me any money. I'm just having fun.**

Once they had Kitty safely landed at the other end, the girls turned to face the tires. "It's not hard at all really," Jean assured them as she moved into the front and made quick work of running on her toes through the zigzag line of tires on the ground. Rogue shrugged and went next with no trouble. The others soon followed with only a couple of minor stumbles.

Jean had been studying the spider web while waiting for the others to finish. She'd decided there must be some sort of logical system for making their way through this section of the challenge. Kitty and Tabitha were congratulating themselves with stating with cocky arrogance, "This course isn't so hard! No problem!" Those watching from the woods and the secondary group who stood on the ridge above could hear the girls' voices as the wind carried the sound.

Scott and Havoc muttered warnings not to get ahead of themselves while the Acolytes looked down from their lofty vantage point carrying on their own conversation. They'd already commented on Tabitha's wild side and the fact that they didn't mind their women being a rowdy, but on a mission it's a different story. Piotr had noticed how quick and agile Kitty was when scaling the ropes and the others had agreed. Victor wasn't saying much, other than criticizing Tabby as a potential teammate while admitting she'd probably be great to have around at, uh, other times. After watching how effortlessly Jean dealt with the tires Remy had commented, "Guess all dose sports paid off for Red."

"I've gotta admit she's solid in combat, too." Remy nodded in agreement with his Australian friend.

"Too bad she's such a pain in the butt," was all Victor had to contribute.

Piotr only shrugged not having cared enough one way or other to pay much heed to her other than knowing what to expect from her back when they were on opposing teams.

"Jean, ya're overthinkin' it," Rogue huffed a little frustrated that the other girl had somehow reached the conclusion that since she knew how to tiptoe through some danged tires she was now in charge.

Slight condescension in her voice, Jean started to explain, "Rogue, you always have to evaluate your opponent to find the safest way to disarm them. You shouldn't be so hot head-." She was cut short as the southerner took matters into her own hands.

Not even breathing heavy yet, Rogue muttered, "Ah am not standin' here for tha next hour whahle ya' talk ta us lahke we're tha village idiots." She was already wending her way through the tangle of ropes. They were varying thicknesses and were wound around as intricately as a web, but she was barely grazing any of them. In full control she bent, ducked, twisted, and moved fluidly through the maze.

Wanda shrugged and started following the same path with a little less grace but still very successfully. Tabitha was the next to bound in, but she soon had one arm tangled above her head. That set off the 'spider', an element they'd forgotten about. Todd came seemingly out of nowhere from above and began hurling wads of his slime at Tabitha as well as the two who hadn't yet entered the maze.

Kitty went in with a great deal more caution to help her teammate. She freed Tabby's arm, but the pair was soon caught up again. Jean sighed and used the incident to demonstrate her point while making her way to them, but she too was immobilized quickly. The distraction of the 'spider' attack didn't help matters any and the girls were dealing with not only their frustration, but being totally disgusted by the green material oozing and dripping on them.

Wanda stood back with her arms crossed wondering sardonically, "How long should we leave them there?"

"Undah othah circumstances Ah'd agree and jus' get Kitty loose, but Ah just wanna be done with this thing. Whah don't ya' stay heah and get 'em through tha final paht? Ah'll go in and help them reach ya'," Rogue suggested.

Wanda was still all for leaving them but before she could pose an argument for her stance Logan's voice echoed around them with the reminder, "You _all_ have to make it or you're doing it over." Wanda narrowed her eyes in the general direction the voice had bellowed from before acceding to Rogue's plan.

Meanwhile Todd (from where he clung to a tree branch), Lance, and Pietro were laughing hysterically as the three girls who were stuck struggled, only making things worse. Scott was trying to be the loyal boyfriend Jean depended upon and stifling his own snickers at their predicament. Kurt, too, was laughing and began calling out 'encouragement' to the girls while Fred stood by trying to figure out where one girl began and another ended. Havoc was as amused as the others, including Logan who'd even let out a chuckle, but he was keeping to himself as he'd noted the dangerous looks Logan had been shooting at him since the misunderstanding in the woods.

Rogue slithered with lithe grace back to retrieve her teammates. Looking down on her, John muttered without thinking, "That sheila is awfully limber." When she arched low to the ground in an almost complete backbend Remy's low, "Mon dieu," was comment enough to have Victor looking his way with a smirk.

Having reached the other girls, Rogue focused on Tabitha, whom she'd reached first. Getting her loose she proceeded back through the 'web' showing Boom-Boom the easiest route through. The two slid against one another as Rogue coaxed Tabby to pass her and move on to where Wanda would get her through the final section. Tabitha, under Wanda's guidance, was soon free while Rogue had reached Kitty and begun untangling her from the intricately interlaced ropes.

Kitty thanked her and easily traced Rogue's exit route. She made quick work of it all now that knew where to go and finished in no time. Rogue finally got back to Jean. As tempting as it was Rogue didn't say any of the snide remarks racing through her head out loud to the taller redhead, instead choosing to work in silence to release her. Jean spoke the entire way through the maze of ropes in what Rogue had always thought of as her nagging tone. She ranted about how it was Rogue's reckless disregard for authority and order that led to them losing time in the web, about why she should have listened to Jean's advice, how immature it was for her to just plunge in without thought for everyone else, all of which Rogue stoically ignored with clenched jaw and fiery eyes.

When Jean made her final remark as the pair emerged, however, it was one comment too many. "And what was up with that cold look you gave Alex during the lunch break anyway? What is your problem with _him_?" Her tone clearly implied that Rogue had a lot of problems already so why would she add some imaginary issue with Scott's little brother on top of the other issues. "Because of whatever it is you're thinking about Alex, Logan's mad at him for no reason now, too." Huffing with indignation she watched as Rogue just kept walking past the other three team members towards the next challenge.

Logan shook his head from where he watched on. This was supposed to build them up, not create more problems. "Great plan, Charles." He moved almost silently through the woods towards the next obstacle on the course.

The girls moved quickly and Jean had stopped lecturing once they arrived at the rope bridge. While Kitty and even Tabitha looked down into the extremely deep chasm they'd be crossing over the increasingly rickety-looking bridge, Jean tried to encourage them that all would be well and Rogue narrowed her eyes at Jean's motherly tones. None of them noticed that Wanda had already started across until she'd almost reached the halfway point.

"Oi, hehe, that sheila's got guts, 'asn't she?" John practically cackled with glee at the young woman's confidence. Pietro smirked with pride that his sister was taking the lead now.

Rogue shrugged and started across after the Brotherhood girl. Tabitha was right behind her and Kitty and Jean soon followed. The bridge swayed precariously and the wind had picked up some, making the girls feel even more unsteady but Wanda just plowed on figuring it was better to just get it over with.

There were multiple rappelling lines on the other side so all five of them attached their harnesses and went down more or less together. Tabby was letting loose carefree cheers on the way down while the other laughed at her enthusiasm. They glided down the lines, feet propelling them off the craggy surface of the Cliffside as they made their swift way down to the ground below. Feeling better now that the conflicts had been left behind, the girls unhooked and moved as one towards the A-frame. They selected Kitty to be the one they moved along using the ropes and made short work of completing the task.

Logan and Victor both nodded from their different positions. The girls were finally communicating effectively and working together. Maybe this harebrained scheme the professor and Magneto had cooked up would actually work.

Jean went first across the multitude of logs bobbing around in the water. There was only a moment's pause between each girl as they leapt from one floating tree trunk to another. The breaks in between prevented them from dealing with the extra turbulence following too closely would have created. Jean dropped into the water at the end, but her purpose was soon clear as she slaked the remnants of slime still clinging after the spider web incident from her hair and body using the clear water from the river. Everyone but Wanda followed her example, Wanda being the only one unaffected by Todd's attack. He told the others he hadn't sent any her way because she was no longer in the web, but they all knew it was really because he was terrified of the hex she would undoubtedly zap at him.

Just a short distance down from where they exited the water laid a pile of supplies. The team set to work with Kitty and Wanda taking charge of the design and planning while the others put it into effect. In a surprisingly short forty minutes, they had a makeshift raft created and were standing beside it in the water preparatory to climbing aboard. The all hefted themselves over the sides from different directions to keep it from tipping much and were soon settled on the flat craft. Tom Sawyer would have been proud of them as the bobbed along in the current carrying them easily towards the finish line. Jean manned the rudder and brought the raft to rest near the dock where the guys had assembled to await the finish of the girls' run.

Logan stood with a stopwatch and announced their final time as one hour fifty-three minutes. "Not bad, girls," Scott allowed.

Of all people to get upset at his patronization of their efforts, the first to speak out was Kitty. "Oh yeah? Well let's just see how great you guys do with it now, huh!" She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot, fury in every line of her body.

"Kitty, I haven't seen you zis mad since zat time ve had zose colds!"

"Don't even, like, remind me of that, Kurt," she warned. He nodded and backed behind Fred for protection.

"I'd be willing to bet we can finish in less time than you girls," Lance commented. "Yeah!" several of his teammates supported.

Jean and Rogue looked to one another and then shared a glance with the others. "Really?" Jean asked in her innocent voice.

"Absolutely," Scott affirmed with confidence.

Another look between the girls and Tabitha stepped forward, hand outstretched. "Fine then… a wager. We bet that you guys take longer than us, at least ten minutes longer, and you're betting that it will be less than an hour fifty-three, right? So we win, you guys take over all our cleaning duties for the rest of this camp and if you win, we'll do the same for you."

Seeing the loophole, Pietro wanted to know, "And what happens if by some miracle neither team wins? What if we tie or are less than ten minutes after your time?"

Logan answered, "Then it's all square and even; everyone keeps to their scheduled duties."

Scott looked a little hesitant, mostly because the girls seemed so confident. But when the other guys started mouthing off, talking big about how they were going to enjoy watching the girls suffer, he grinned and shook on the deal. "It's a bet then," Wanda declared.

The five girls walked to the starting point together, except for Rogue who hung back just a bit. The path was narrow and she was worn out with all the close contact she'd had to expose herself to during their run of the course. She just needed some space for a few minutes. The others had rounded a bend in the trail just ahead, so she'd lost sight of them, but their voices carried through the trees. Rogue let a slight smile cross her lips at the sound of the good-natured bickering currently taking place and could practically hear Logan gritting his jaw as he tried to keep his cool.

When she would have picked up her pace a little bit, she heard a familiar voice. "'S nice ta see ya' smilin', cherie." Rogue considered ignoring him, but he'd been so sweet yesterday she knew he deserved better. Instead she wandered over to the tree he was propped against until she stood right in front of him. Her hair had dried into curl-tipped waves after her plunge in the river and one lock was now gliding around his finger like a silky hug.

"Whatcha doin' heah this tahme, Rems?"

"Watchin' de mos' belle femme Remy ever known."

Rolling her eyes, Rogue scoffed. "Yeah, rahght! Realleh, what's tha deal?"

Remy shifted closer to her, towering over Rogue and making her feel both sheltered and protected. He had one forearm above her head and his other hand held hers lightly. He admitted, "De truth be dat Remy can't tell ya dat yet, cherie. He want to, but dat not be de plan an' he has ta follow orders, oui?" Now he leaned down until his forehead, covered by his uniform, rested against hers and lowered his raised arm to the curve of her waist. "But Remy can promise ya dis, Rogue… he tell ya' soon 's he can."

She stared up at him and he caught the lingering doubt and worry she carried. "Ah can tell ya dis; it's good. At least, Remy t'ink so an' he hopes you agree. No more fightin', d'accord?"

"Yeah," she breathed softly. "Thet's what Ah keep hearin'."

"Rogue!" Logan's bellow echoed all around the secluded pair. Rogue had lost all track of where she was and what she was supposed to be doing. Remy had a way of doing that to her. Now, though, reality intruded roughly to remind her and she bid Remy goodbye with secret regret. He always had a way of making her feel better, calmer somehow.

Remy let his hand drift across her, lingering against her warmth as long as possible before she pulled completely away from him. "See ya' later, cher?"

Rogue smiled at him this time, knowing how much it pleased him when she did. "Maybeh… it seems ta keep happenin', doesn't it now?" Her green eyes alight, she finally called back to Logan that she was almost there and moved away from Remy and out of his sight.

"De femme act'lly flirted wit' meh!" his voice, laden with wonder, pronounced.

"Yeah," Victor's rough voice rumbled from above. "I'd say you're in, all right. Don't screw up, though." A man of few words, he was done and moved through the tree-tops to where Piotr and John were watching the second team scale the wall.

Remy knew that Creed was about the least likely candidate for chivalrous mutant of the year, but also knew that somewhere along the way the feral had developed an almost grudging regard for the spitfire who'd just left. He didn't know if it was her boldness in battle while still respecting her opponents abilities, or the fact that she could drive a motorcycle with such skill, or how much of it had to do with the fact that she was an old, wise, melancholy soul trapped in a healthy, firm, young, and womanly body. All Remy knew was that he wouldn't have one, but two raging, overprotective, virtually indestructible ferals to deal with instead of one should he ever hurt Rogue.

Remembering that he had a job to do soon, Remy moved with more speed and purpose through the trees towards his appointed attack position. He didn't think it would be too long before he'd begin his assault and settled in to await his foes. Thinking of one in particular, a malicious grin curved his lips and his eyes gleamed with dangerous intent. This would be fun, he knew.

Rogue knew Logan was aware who she'd just been with by the suspicious sniffs followed by his squinting eyes, but neither spoke of it. She just stood near the other girls who were, all but Wanda, shouting out taunts at the guys. The team was larger, but they were doing very well. Fred, however, was having a little trouble scaling the wall. At last, with a little assistance from Lance and Scott, he heaved himself to the top.

Knowing he might not follow through with it, the others got Fred to go first on the zip line. At the last minute, Todd leapt onto his back and the pair of them screeched the entire way to the other side. Pietro went next, grinning with pleasure at the speed he managed to pick up along the way. Alex calmly approached the challenge and enjoyed the adrenaline rush that accompanied his run. While Lance was making his way across the line, Alex had the uncomfortable experience of being glowered at by all three of the others waiting on that side of the obstacle.

Alex decided the best way to handle it was to just avoid the issue. He, of course, hadn't told anyone about what happened that morning between him and Rogue and didn't want to let anything about it slip in front of his brother or the other X-Men, but it was obvious Fred knew, if his glower was anything to go by. Honestly, he just hadn't been thinking. Alex knew Rogue was pretty cool; he figured that out not long after moving into the mansion. Her sense of humor was pretty sarcastic, but he almost always laughed when it wasn't directed at him. She never judged others too harshly, either.

Alex really had no idea why he'd come on so strong with her that morning. He had the feeling he was going to regret it, though, in the long run. There was nothing he could do about it now, however. Kurt came zooming along followed closely by Lance and then Scott. Alex was relieved when his big brother rejoined them since the tension was thicker than his board wax with the Brotherhood boys watchfully waiting for him to make a wrong move or comment so they could attack him and Kurt darting confused, concerned looks between Alex and the rest of them.

Kurt had even gone so far as to ask, "Vhat iz wrong with you guys? Vhy are you looking at Alex zat vay?" But no one wanted to be the one to answer. Nobody wanted to upset him and those from the Brotherhood considered this a matter they were more than happy to handle on their own.

With Scott's arrival came a return to some semblance of normalcy amongst the young men. They got through the tire traverse without incident which left the girls checking their watches and becoming slightly nervous at how quickly the guys were progressing. Next, of course, was the infamous spider web. "Hey, wait a minute," Tabitha shared her dawning realization, "when we went through this one, one of them was our attacker but none of us were told to help this time. Who's the spider?"

While they pondered this, the boys started through the maze of interlaced ropes. "It makes sense, I suppose," Jean commented. "None of us has powers that would be very good for this except maybe Tabitha."

"Yeah, but like who is it then?"

"I think we're about to find out," Wanda finally contributed with a nod towards where Kurt and Lance had become entangled. Suddenly objects began fluttering all around the team struggling to free themselves of the ropes. None of the young men paid much attention until the objects began to explode all around them like firecrackers, causing the seven to begin jerking away instinctively which led to them being in worse shape than they were before.

The girls didn't even try to hold back their laughter as they sat back to enjoy the show. Back on the ridge above the Acolytes chuckled. "Oi think Gambit may be 'avin' a bit too much fun there," John commented as he laughed again at Scott and Alex jumping into one another in their attempts to escape the explosions. Remy was keeping it low powered so that no one would actually get hurt, but was having a great time startling them with his unexpected, random shots. If one or two stronger ones landed closer to Alex, well… they are cards after all, how accurate can he expect to be, right? The only outward sign of his inner amusement was a lopsided smirk.

"Kid's gotta have his fun, right?" Creed commented, pleased to see at least some small amount of retribution rained down on that cocky little mini-Cyke.

When they were about to finally make their less-than-dignified exit from the web, he did slip a final card unnoticed into Alex's back pocket. The small explosive didn't detonate until the group was almost halfway to the rope bridge. When it did, Logan was the first to let an appreciative grin slip over his features momentarily as he heard Alex's loud yelp echoing all around them. He knew that Gumbo was good to have around for some things. When the Cajun met up with Logan inside the tree line, he got straight to the point. "Merci, mon ami. I feel just une petite better now. I needed dat."

Fred wasn't concerned about heights and headed across the precarious bridge first. The only problem was that his weight had it swinging and swaying even more furiously than typical. Kurt toppled off to dangle from the rope side until Lance easily lifted him to safety. Once Fred was across, the others found their own crossing much smoother. All but Scott and Kurt were giving Alex the cold shoulder still and finally Scott snapped.

"Okay, what's going on? You guys have been ignoring Alex since lunch and it's affecting our chances of beating the girls so let's get it out in the open and then get it fixed."

"Why don't you ask your little brother about what happened between him and Rogue on the trail this morning?" Pietro asked in his own special snide way.

Scott looked confused, but Kurt wanted to know, "Vhat are zey talking about Havoc?" There was no anger in his voice yet, but he was puzzled and concerned and it showed.

Alex couldn't believe this was happening. One stupid moment, one bad judgement call and now things were crumbling all around him. "It was all just a little misunderstanding."

"Oh yeah? Which part did we not get? Was it when you decided she must be 'lonely' or was it the part where you made sure she knew she was a 'freak'?" Pietro's temper got the best of him and his words were coming at such a rapid-fire rate that even his housemates had to sit and let it sink in before they'd deciphered his outburst.

Todd then put his two cents in. "Or was it that slam about her not being able to get any other offers because of her skin?" He sneered, his voice coming out snide and filled with anger at the treatment of his former teammate.

They couldn't see Scott's eyes clearly behind his ruby lenses, but his brows shot up in shocked amazement as he turned towards his little brother. "Alex… you couldn't have said those things!" Seeing the remorseful look mixed with rebellion on that familiar face he knew it was all true. "To _Rogue_?" Scott shook his head, disappointment in every line of his body. Sounding more like a father than a brother, he started, "Alex, I cannot believe you spoke to her, or anyone, that way! Rogue has never treated you with anything other than the same respect she shows everyone."

"It's true. She doesn't respect anyone very much, but at least you always know where you stand with her. She's not all sweet and fluffy like Kitty, or all classy like Jean, but I like Rogue. Even when she's scary." Fred kept nodding even after he'd finished speaking.

Scott was ready to continue his spiel on respect and responsibility, but just when Alex thought it couldn't get any worse, he spied Kurt's expression. Hurt, betrayal, fury, righteous indignation… they all mingled on the previously readily-amused, good-natured boy's face. He went from trusting and amiable to outraged indignation at Alex's treatment of his sister. With a roar that earned him some respect from both eavesdropping ferals, he ported directly in front of Alex and grabbed him by the shirtfront, shaking him like a dog with a toy.

"Whoa! Who knew he had it in him?" Pietro said while enjoying the display.

"Just who do you think you are talking to meine Schwester that vay, you disgusting, perverted as-," Scott cut in before Kurt could finish his insult.

Letting one hand drop onto Kurt's shoulder, Scott tried to diffuse the situation. "Kurt, I agree that Alex was out of line and that we have to deal with this, but this isn't the time. We are in the middle of the challenge course and trying to beat the girls' time, or did all of you forget what happens if we lose?"

At the reminder most of them agreed and turned to face the next task. Kurt however, eyes flashing with an unholy light that they'd never seen him wear and his sharply pointed teeth glinting menacingly, leaned in closer to snarl, "Don't even _think_ about going anywhere near my sister again. Ve vill settle this, _Havoc_," he promised.

As they moved to begin gearing up for the descent down the rappelling lines, Alex was wise enough to keep his head down, his mouth shut, and his distance from the others. Had he realized the way it would blow up in his face, Alex would never have treated Rogue that way. It was too late now. He had no choice but to ride this wave and hope he didn't wipe out.

They were almost totally in unison as they began their controlled drop to the riverside below. At the bottom the group raced with new determination to where the A-frame waited. They'd decided back at the beginning to let Todd be the one they had to move as he was one of the smallest. They worked together fairly well on that one and between that, their superior numbers, and having the advantage of having watched the girls figure it out, they made up a small portion of their lost time.

Racing to the floating logs obstacle the guys plunged right in, in some cases literally. Both Todd, with his innate abilities, and Kurt, thanks to his acrobatic skill, were across in record time. The others, however, struggled a bit more. Fred wound up pretty much wading across. Lance realized he was at a huge disadvantage on this one and early on shoved pride aside in the name of avoiding work. He'd latched onto a shorter log and used it to kick his way around the borders of the enclosed area.

Scott fared well, but was nowhere near achieving Kurt's or Todd's speed. Alex did very well, also, likely due to his surf experience, but was still basically being shunned so no one bothered commenting on his performance. On the other side the group set to working on their raft.

The girls were busy checking their watches as they ambled along the paths running through the woods, generally following along the guys' route. Jean spoke up. "They're cutting it close. If they take about the same amount of time we did to build the raft, they will come in just a few minutes later than we did." They continued walking with most of them figuring at least they'd all be even if that happened.

"Ya' know, tha big prahblem is that there are more of them so they mahght work fastah than we did."

"That's true," Kitty conceded sounding a little concerned.

"Yeah, but they also aren't working together as well as we were so that will hold them back," Wanda felt inclined to point out.

"Which brings us back to what I was talking about earlier," Jean stated firmly. "What exactly is going on, Rogue?"

"Why are you asking her?" Tabitha wondered, her curiosity piqued.

"Because whatever is going on with the guys somehow started with and involves her," Jean assured while studying Rogue closely.

"Do nawt even trah gettin' in mah head, Jean," Rogue warned as she recognized the intense expression on the other girl's face.

Wanda finally rolled her eyes and sighed at the drama of it all. "Oh, just tell her what happened already! It's not like it's a big secret and if you don't tell her, I will just to shut her up."

Rogue shot a surprised stare at the Brotherhood girl. "Don't look so shocked. Our team talks about what's going on. How else are we supposed to have each other's backs?" Seeing that Rogue wasn't speaking up, Wanda then gave her attention to Jean. "Since you seem to think you're the den mother of these little scouts and have no respect for their privacy, you might as well get the facts straight… something it honestly doesn't seem like you're very good at. Havoc tried to hit on Rogue and when she turned him down he got really ugly and tried to force her into something. He was pretty insulting from what I heard. Some of the guys overheard what he was doing and made him stop."

"Like, are you serious?" Kitty was wide-eyed. She turned to Rogue, "Rogue, why didn't you say something. I ought to phase that jerk into the bottom of the outhouse for a few hours!"

"Kitty, settle down." Before Rogue could reassure her friend, Jean intervened again with the intention of being the rational voice.

"Yes, Kitty… we don't want to rush into any false assumptions. It's hard to say what really happened. Rogue, is what Wanda's telling us even what really happened? I mean, maybe you just misinterpreted Alex."

Tabitha rolled her eyes this time. "Sheesh, Jean! What do you think she is, an idiot? How can that be 'misinterpreted'?" Her air quotes and stance said a lot about what she thought of Jean's reaction.

"Look, all I'm saying is that Rogue isn't the most experienced with guys and all and it's entirely possible she saw it differently from how Alex intended. After all, how likely is it that he was coming onto a girl he can't even…" she tapered off, realizing what she was about to say.

Rogue was pretty irritated now, but trying to keep her cool. "Yeah, a girl he can't even touch. He pointed that out, too. He seemed to think he could 'work around it', though. Ya' know what? I really don't want to talk about it any more and it's none of y'all's business anyway." Rogue started walking away. When Kitty called out to her to wait up, she said without any real heat, "Just leave meh alone, okay?"

Rogue kept walking leaving an angry witch, a distressed friend, a slightly guilty sort-of friend, and a friend who popped her gum carelessly since she was sure everything would work out in the end following behind. It didn't take long for Rogue to locate Logan and settled on the ground beside him. The mismatched pair sat silently looking down on the others. She leaned her head against his shoulder in a familiar gesture and sighed only straightening when the loud traipsing of the others could be heard nearby. It was only a few minutes, but it made her feel better nonetheless. "Don't sweat it, Stripes. It's all under control."

"Thanks, Logan." She held back a chuckle as he sighed and shook his head at the goings on below.

The other girls were sitting with them in no time and all were quiet, knowing Logan's impatience with idle chatter. Before long, though, it was too much for Tabby and Kitty. "You know, Kitty, I think you're crazy to cut Avalanche loose… he's absolutely yummy!" Tabby was leering at Lance, who'd taken off his wet T-shirt so it could dry while he worked.

"He is, like, totally hot in a bad boy way, but it's not like he's the only one." Rogue was trying not to laugh as she felt Logan tensing beside her. Jean and Wanda were both looking at Lance to evaluate his stud factor.

Soon the other guys had figured Lance had the right idea and were removing their shirts, also. Pietro was leaner than Lance, but far from scrawny, the girls decided. When Fred lifted his shirt over his head, they all shuddered a bit and declined to comment, for which Logan was immensely thankful. Kurt was getting hot and tugged his shirt off, as well, but when they started to comment Rogue quickly interrupted. "Ugh, please don't y'all… he's mah little brothah an' that's just wrong."

Kitty giggled, but they did keep their mouths shut. Scott and Alex were next and after a moment's awed silence, Tabitha yelled down, "Oh yeah, SMOKIN' HOT BABY!" Logan's head whipped around as he stared at her while Jean smacked her.

"Mmhm," was all Kitty had to add. Wanda quirked one brow up and didn't look away from the flesh currently on display.

Watching from not far off, Remy and the other Acolytes were busy being entertained by the commentary. Remy noted with satisfaction that Rogue hadn't said much about the other guys nor had she been obsessively watching them. She would look to see what they were talking about, then she'd glance around or lean her head back with her eyes shut or just smile at the other girls. _Dat's right, cherie. Y' don' need ta look anywhere else. Dis Cajun gonna be all ya ever need._ He tried not to let his thoughts show, though most of them had at least some clue.

When Todd stripped off his shirt a chorus of "Eww!", "Oh for tha love of all that's holy no", "What _is _that?", "Oh my, I think I may be sick", and "That's it; I'm hexing his slimy butt out of this time zone" filled the air. The Acolytes were just as bad. "Oi'm havin' nightmares about this, I just know it," came from John who had a quick ally in Piotr. "Da," he agreed while unable to tear his away realizing this was the same fascination as one felt when watching a horror film… it was grotesque but you couldn't help looking. Victor simply spat out an obscene word and looked away, wanting to claw his own eyes out. "Dere's jus' no words for dat," summed up Remy's reaction. Even Logan shuddered.

Twenty minutes had already passed and the guys were not making much progress. In fact, they were still arguing over the best way to lash the thing together. Fred was actually being the most productive by moving all the wood into position to put together and organizing the other supplies while the rest of the debated. Finally Lance just walked away and got to work. The others weren't long in following.

Lance was actually following Alex's advice to them, which surprised everyone. "Look, just because he's an arrogant – well, anyway, treating people like dirt doesn't mean he doesn't know anything about knots and rafts. I just want to get this stupid exercise over with so we can move on. I've got better things to do than playing Huck Finn." After another thirty minutes, they were waist-deep in the water, their makeshift raft floating between them.

All seemed well until Fred tried to climb aboard. His presence caused the craft to list dangerously to one side. When they moved him to the middle, water began sloshing over all of them and they were questioning if it would make it to the finish point before sinking. They almost told him to get off and swim alongside, but saw the sad expression on his chubby, disenchanted face. Although Pietro was still ready to tell him to get his big butt off, the others talked over him and decided to just see how far they could get. They made it more than halfway before it became necessary for Fred to climb back into the water. "Man, my shirt was finally dry, too," he whined.

When they drew near the dock Logan and the girls were all awaiting their arrival. By sheer force of will, Kitty and Tabitha managed to look noncommittal. Scott and Lance, both swaggering a bit as they approached, grinned with anticipation. "So, what was our final time?"

Pietro zipped to Lance's side and stood rubbing his hands together eagerly. "Get ready for some serious labor, girls."

Todd hopped to a spot right before the ladies and tried to make a muscle, posing for them. "So, you luscious things enjoy the show?" He waggled one eyebrow before hurtling back into the water while Wanda tucked her hands behind her back once more, a satisfied expression settled on her lips.

"Yeah, how'd we do, Mister Logan?" Fred wanted to know.

"Alright, guys. Your final time was," he consulted the stopwatch, drawing things out just to make them squirm. "It was two hours, seven minutes. Hope you guys like clean-up duty."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: They aren't mine and this isn't giving me any money

**Disclaimer:**** They aren't mine and this isn't giving me any money. I'm just having fun.**

As the guys groaned, the girls gave rowdy cheers of celebration. No more assigned chores the rest of camp. Oh yeah! "Jubilee is going to love hearing about this," Kitty commented while busily texting her friend who, along with Bobby, had been sent back home the first day after discovering they'd both been rubbing against some poison oak leaving them with open sores before nightfall. "She wants pictures of them doing our work," she giggled after reading their missing friend's reply.

Not until they all wandered back to their cabins did Jean find time to get Rogue alone. Hearing noise from behind Rogue's door, Jean gave a tentative knock, not sure how the girl would receive her visit. "Just a minute," Rogue's voice came through the wood barrier.

Jean waited patiently for the door to open. After only a few minutes, Rogue called out for her to come in. Jean eased the door open, still feeling a bit uncertain, but determined to clear the air. When Rogue saw who it was, her face hardened a little bit, but she showed no other reaction. "Rogue, I don't want to take too much of your free time, but I was hoping I could talk to you about something."

Rogue pulled her robe tighter around herself. She'd been about to take a shower after their run at the challenge course. Settling uneasily on the edge of her mattress, she nodded to let Jean know she was listening. She tried not to let her jealousy (not that she'd admit to feeling that way) cloud her judgment, but still had to tamp down some bitter feelings as the redhead began saying what she'd come to say. "I just wanted to apologize for earlier, Rogue. I shouldn't have said what I did about your experience with guys, and more importantly I shouldn't have questioned you about what happened with Alex or acted like it was nothing." Jean shook her head impatiently and started pacing a little.

"Ya're rahght, ya' shouldn't have said that stuff. Jean, Ah know exactly what I can an' cannot look forward ta in mah lahfe an' Ah don't realleh need ya' to remahnd meh of it. Aftah livin' with tha Brothahhood guys an' now tha guys at Xavier's Ah think Ah've got a pretteh firm grasp o' how they think an' what they mean when they say things."

"I know, Rogue. That's part of why I'm apologizing."

Still not really feeling warm fuzzies for the other girl, she wanted to know, "An' what's tha othah paht?"

Jean sat next to Rogue, but not too close. Huffing with frustration over her own inability to put her thoughts into words, she finally faced Rogue, her features an open book. "Wanda was right. The truth is if we're going to be a team, a family of sorts, we've got to be able to count on one another, be able to talk to and trust in each other. We've never had that, you and I."

"An' ya' think it's all mah fault, right?" Rogue asked with no heat.

"No. I know it isn't. Rogue, I've tried… I really have, to put behind me where you came from. The fact that you were with the Brotherhood has been really hard for me to get past, but I think I finally did it. I even struggled with being mad that you and Scott got kind of close and that he was the one to really get you to join us. Stupid, right?" Jean gave a watery half-laugh. "None of that was the hardest part, though."

Rogue was trying really hard to not just punch that perfect little nose, but it was a stretch of her patience. Her patience rarely got a good workout anyway, and this was definitely pushing it. She was trying not to be insulted that it must be stupid to think a guy like Scott could be interested in her, but this conversation was rapidly reaching the limits of her self-control. Gritting her teeth, she ground out, "An' what exactly is tha hardest paht for ya', princess." Oops, guess she didn't manage to completely rein it in, huh?

"Two things, really," Jean started, choosing to ignore the 'princess' remark. "The fact that I owe you so much and will probably never not be indebted to you, for one." Seeing the confusion on the younger girl's face, she explained further. "First you got me away from Fred when he lost it right after coming to Bayville. Then you were the one to save me from my own powers when I lost control. You are so independent and self-reliant I'll most likely never get the chance to even the score."

Jean held up her hand slightly to silence Rogue when she would have retorted to what she saw as a twisted view of things. "And that's the other thing; you are so forthright and such a fighter. Half the time it doesn't seem like you need anyone. You can handle practically anything. I just envy that sometimes." Jean's voice had grown quieter as she wrapped it up.

Rogue tried to calm herself and respond reasonably. "Jean, ya're an idiot. Am Ah realleh supposed ta feel bad for ya'? What have ya' ever realleh wanted or needed that ya' didn't get? Ya' have a great mutation that ya' control realleh well and whatever boyfriend ya' want, ya' get. Ya're one o' the professor's prized students an' he trusts ya' with anythin'. Ah take care o' myself because every tahme I trusted someone else ta' do it, they betrayed meh. It's not optional any moah. Ah was with tha' Brotherhood because mah own adoptive mothah lied ta meh an' manipulated meh. Ah let loose freakin' Apocolypse, Jean… envy? Realleh?" Before she shoved to her feet she tacked on, "An' for tha' record, ya'r lovahboyah wasn't tha decidin' factah in mah decision ta join y'all, Logan was."

Rogue paced to the door but stopped short of opening it. Her head dropped and she drew in a deep breath as she regained control over her emotions. "Look, Jean… Ah don't hate ya' or anythin', but Ah have a hard tahme thinkin' we'll evah be close or anythin'. We jus' don't have much in common an', frankly, it's pretty danged painful sometahmes watchin' ya' live ya'r perfect little lahfe when, in all honesteh, mahne sucks most o' tha tahme. We could both stand ta trah hardah with each othah, an' I'm willin' ta do that, but that's all Ah can prahmise."

Jean crossed to stand at Rogue's side. She reached a hesitant hand and rested it on Rogue's robe-clad arm. "That sounds good to me, Rogue. You're right. I'll do my best, too. Friends?"

Rogue fought the urge to roll her eyes at the sappy redhead. She was trying, but if it meant acting like these preppy do-gooders she wasn't sure she could handle it. Calling the two of them friends was, in her opinion, exaggerating their relationship, but if it meant she got to take her shower and that this conversation would end then whatever. "Yeah, Jean. Now, as ya'r friend, mah gift ta ya' is gettin' cleaned up so y'all don't hafta deal with tha stench o' that course comin' from meh all day," she opened the door then and a happily smiling Jean Gray went through with a giggle.

"I'll see you later, then, Rogue," she agreed.

One more heaved sigh as she leaned against the door to shut it and then Rogue turned to gather the rest of what she'd need for her shower. Rogue had waited for all of the others to leave so she wouldn't have to worry about contact with anyone. Now, with the cabin to herself, she walked to the communal showers and turned on the water. Standing beneath the tepid spray, she let her mind wander never realizing that as it headed directly for a certain Cajun and his appealing smirk a totally uncharacteristic smile spread over her face lending it an innocent joyfulness that hadn't been seen there since she was a small child.

Not too far away most of the others were swimming in the lake or lying around on the floating dock. Fred did a cannonball that sent a huge wave over the girls sunbathing on the dock who immediately let out a dismayed yell. Tabby tossed a couple of glowing orbs towards the large boy who yelped when they detonated right beside him. Todd perched on some rocks by the water's edge and snagged numerous insect snacks, grossing out Jean and Scott who were treading water just in front of him and trying to ignore Todd's display. Wanda conjured up a breeze to dry her hair while Kitty glowered as she toweled off.

"I'm sorry, girls," Fred apologized sincerely. Kitty looked at his plump face and just couldn't stay mad at him.

"It's okay, Freddie; it was getting hot anyway," she allowed with a small smile. The others were glad she was being nice to him since it really wasn't entirely his fault he was so socially inept. Kurt was nowhere near as playful as usual, too busy sending fierce glares Alex's direction to have his usual fun.

At one point Wanda was swimming, her long strokes cutting effortlessly through the gleaming water. Alex was nearby and completely unsure how to act around the mysterious girl. "You're a moron, you know," she informed him.

"I'm starting to think you must be right," he confessed.

"Yeah, well, it's a good thing for you these goody-goodies are such forgiving pushovers. Play nice like a good little boy, apologize to Rogue, and they'll get over it." Seeing some of the menacing glowers darting his directing, she shrugged one shoulder. "Well, eventually anyway."

"Thanks, I think," he muttered at the girl who, while gorgeous, quite frankly scared him more than a little.

Lance was swimming laps while Pietro flirted shamelessly with Kitty and Tabitha. Jean and Scott had drifted a little further from Todd, but had stayed in the shade provided by the trees where her skin wouldn't burn easily. She'd told him about her talk with Rogue. Scott shook his head, disappointed in Jean for the first time. "I can't believe you didn't trust her judgment, Jean. Her mutation does nothing to negate the fact that Rogue's a very pretty girl, and when you get to know her you realize how nice she is, too."

Jean's eyes glowed with a jealousy she didn't often experience. "What are you saying, exactly, Scott?" she demanded in cutting tones.

Although he knew she couldn't see him, he rolled his eyes with exasperation. "Cut it out, Jean. You know I care more about you than any other girl I've known. All I'm saying is that Rogue is good friend and Alex, along most guys, couldn't do a lot better. She may not show it in the same ways, but Rogue's always there for the people she cares about… you included. Just try not to judge her by her mutation and nothing more." He looked down, clearly a little depressed as he remembered some of his own experiences. "There's a lot more to a person than their abilities and whether or not they have control over them."

Jean reached out to run her hand over his shoulder. "Oh Scott, you're right. I'm sorry." She smiled at him from lowered eyes. "I know that's all true, which is why I already apologized to her and tried to make things right. I'll keep trying, too…. I want to know the Rogue you know and care about." She was thrilled with how openly he'd admitted his affections for her. The two of them had grown more and more comfortable showing their feelings for one another around others. Although they still hadn't made it in any way official, everyone pretty much knew they considered themselves committed as a couple.

They kissed then, stopping only when Todd began chanting in a rather off-key sing-song way about them and drawing the attention of the others. Soon a full-out water fight ensued with everyone participating. Rogue heard them through the open window in her room, pulling on a lightweight long-sleeved shirt over her cami before combing through her hair. While part of her wanted to join them and knew they'd welcome her, a more persistent part of her wanted some solitude. She waved at Logan, who rested not far from where the others were hanging out to let him know she was fine and then wandered around until she came across a swing suspended from a huge branch in one of the trees encircling a tiny clearing behind the bonfire area.

She pushed off to set the swing in motion and lazily pumped her legs to achieve greater momentum. It wasn't long before she was soaring back and forth, her hair rippling all around her in waves thanks to new length she'd let grow in after everything that had happened during the last year. Somehow making it into town to get it trimmed just hadn't seemed important. Soon Rogue was more utterly relaxed than she'd been in recent memory. She was quite literally thinking about nothing… just feeling the wind, hearing the rustle of the leaves and a few birds… and screeching as someone's hand momentarily rested on her lower back giving her an additional push.

Rogue flew from her seat on the swing mid-flight, landing in a tightly tucked roll and leaping from that roll into a well-balanced fighting stance, hands loose and bouncing on the balls of her feet ready to meet with whatever attacker presented themselves. "Sheila's got some nice moves," John commented appraisingly.

"Mmhm," Vic assented. Piotr was busy staring down towards the lake. The three stood at the edge of the little space while Remy, who'd stopped the swing's erratic motions, stood with a hand on one of the supporting ropes.

"Remy," she gasped, letting one hand flutter up to rest over her racing heartbeat. "Ya' 'bout gave meh a heart attack!" He only chuckled while she regained her composure. Trying to tamp down her knee-jerk aggressive reaction to their continued presence and having an easier time with it after so many encounters with the Acolytes over the past couple of days, she asked in a relatively normal tone, "So, what are ya' guys doin' heah now?"

"I t'ought I'd check on mon amour durin' my break from de mission. Dey," he indicated the others with a tilt of his chin, "jus' came alon' since dey didn' have anyt'in' better ta do."

"Don't call meh that," she reminded him absentmindedly. She was looking over at the other men. "So, Ah don't realleh know much 'bout y'all, except what Ah've seen in fahghts an' what mah head-Logan's told meh 'bout Vic ovah theah."

She settled cross-legged in the middle of a patch of sunlight. John shrugged and joined her in no time. He leaned close to her with a smirk, "So, sheila, tell ol' Pyro all your dirty little secrets." His waggling eyebrows let her know how very not serious he was being with his flirting. She laughed a little bit and Remy couldn't deny the slightest twinge of jealousy.

Using his bo staff he pushed his friend back. "Let de fille breathe, homme." Remy lowered down to his haunches to look into her eyes. "Ya' havin' any more problems wit' dat little boy, mon petite chère?"

Rogue gave her head one negative shake before leaning back to bask in the warmth of the sun's rays. "Nah, Ah think he knows he screwed up. Ah jus' blew things outta proportion, prob'ly."

Vic rumbled a little bit and even John wore a serious expression, which was totally unlike him. "Non, Rogue, dere was no way ta' take what he said an' did any way tha's okay. No femme has ta' put up wit' crap like dat."

"You want me to rip out his throat?" Vic offered hopefully.

That did make her smile. She tilted her head back even farther so she could see him where he stood a little behind where she was seated. He and Logan were so alike. It was easy to see how they'd been friends for a long time. It was a shame things had changed between them. "Not this tahme, but thanks anyway, sugah." Rogue squinted one eye to block the bright sunlight. "When'd ya' staht bein' so nahce ta' meh anyway?"

For a minute she thought he'd bolt out of the clearing without answering, but then he grunted. "Ya' can't be all bad if the runt thinks you're okay and ya' fight pretty hard for a frail."

"Did ya' know Ah was you one nahght?"

"Heard somethin' about that."

She nodded sagely before lifting her head to a normal position once more. "Ah had a feelin' ya' mahght have. Logan an' you used ta' be different, huh?" She was trying to be discreet and he knew it.

"Yeah, kid," was all he said.

"So what's ya'r storeh?" she asked John. Before he could answer a satellite phone somewhere on his person starting ringing and he excused himself. He walked away giving only one-word answers that revealed nothing with Piotr and Vic following, each with a nod to Rogue and Remy on their way.

"Well, there went that bondin' moment, huh?" she joked.

Remy rested one knee on the ground and leaned forward to let his fingers come as close to grazing her cheek as possible without actually making contact. Her breath caught as she tried not to flinch away. Every fiber in her being, however, was screaming at her to draw back, to run away as fast as possible. "Rogue, amoureux (sweetheart), ya've got no idea-," he stopped short of finishing his statement, his hand falling to his leg while he looked up at the tree line.

Mere seconds later, Rogue saw Victor emerge from the underbrush. "We've got to go now, Cajun."

"Looks like dis Cajun's time is up, chérie. I'll see ya' later, dough, ma petite." He brushed a kiss over the hair atop her head as he rose to his full, towering height. Before she could rebuke him for using those little endearments and for daring to kiss her at all, he'd disappeared without a sound, as stealthy as ever.

Rogue lay back on the bumpy ground simply enjoying the moment. While she relaxed and the others continued unwinding down at the lake, a meeting that would have shocked all the teens was getting started in one of the cabins. "Okay, so I guess you showin' up on time tells me Mags has been in touch and ya' know what's up," Logan opened things in his typically casual manner.

Remy was the first to respond. "Dat's right, mon ami (my friend). De Prof. says only a coupla days more an' it'll all be in place."

Logan nodded. "All right, so any of you guys got any questions? I'm s'pposed ta' make sure ya' feel like you're goin' in with a clue." He sounded grumpy that this had become his babysitting assignment, but grudgingly or not, he was willing to answer anything they may want to know that was reasonable.

Victor just sat back, staring at his former friend from fathomless eyes that were impossible to read. Piotr asked a few questions about schooling opportunities since he'd never finished and other general rules. John asked about drinking, looked for reassurance that curfews did not apply to adults, and wanted information on any possible repercussions if found visiting girls' rooms. Logan didn't even answer that last one, just snarled and released his claws, the adamantium gleaming in the light through the windows.

Throughout it all Remy was surprisingly quiet, which wasn't like him. He wanted to ask something, but felt it was private. Logan met the younger man's unique eyes and gave only the slightest inclination of his chin to indicate he knew Remy wanted a word alone. They covered some of the other information from their leaders before wrapping up the impromptu meeting. The others left to make their way to wherever they'd set up their base of operations while remaining near the camp. Remy remained behind. "What is it, Gumbo?" Logan's voice held no threat… yet.

"Is mon amour really doin' alrigh'? Is dere anyt'in' I oughta know 'bout t'in's?"

Logan sighed. He did not want to have this conversation; he didn't even want to acknowledge what it really meant. This guy was serious about Stripes; he wanted to win the heart of one of Logan's girls and that was kind of freaking him out because the guy might actually have a chance of succeeding. "It was pretty rough on her after Apocalypse and all that junk. She's been even more isolated, but she's tough. Stripes can hold her own; she never trusted herself enough, but she's always had it in her."

Remy was already nodding before Logan had finished. "I know dat. Jus' cause someone can do somet'in' alone doesn' mean dey should, dough. She's still just une petite femme douce et magnifique qui doit être acceptée et ont aimé (a sweet, gorgeous little woman who needs to be accepted and loved)."

"Ouais, rappelez-vous juste une chose, Cajun… Vous avez blessé que la fille et moi vous détacherez ; vous prierez pour la mort avant que je sois fait avec toi si vous la cassez. (Yeah, just remember one thing, Cajun… You hurt that girl and I'll tear you apart; you'll pray for death before I'm done with you if you break her)."

"You speak French, my friend?"

"I lived in Canada for years, Gumbo," he said by way of explanation. "Do we have an understanding then?"

"Oui, Wolverine. I wouldn't hurt mon chérie for da world." Remy left then and rejoined his teammates.

Logan didn't bother with the communicator. _You catch most of that, Charles?_

_Yes, Logan, I did. I know you are still uncertain, but trust me, my friend. This is all as it was meant to be._

_I hope you're right about this._

_I have searched each of their minds and know their motivations. I fear not all will remain with us long-term, but none mean us any harm nor will those who will not stay do any damage before they depart._

_If you already know all this why are we even going through the motions? Why not just get to where it's gonna wind up?_

Back at the Institute Charles smiled. _This is how it's meant to be, my friend._

Charles Xavier and his old friend, sometimes foe, now ally talked for much longer before parting ways for the evening. It was good to have his comrade back again.

At camp, the girls had somehow all wound up sitting around in one of the rooms talking about just about everything under the Sun as the darkness descended around the cabin. With no one really talking about it, this cabin had somehow become the girls' domain while the boys had moved their things and commandeered the cabin where the Brotherhood previously remained separate from the X-Geeks. Logan had let it go since it fell in line with the big plan anyway. He heard laughter coming from where the girls were gathered and went for a short walk having decided they could use the break. They'd just finished listening to Tabby describe some of what had occurred during her days with the Brotherhood boys, laughing at her antics. "So, Wanda, who are you, like, dating?"

"What?" the dangerous girl asked, stunned that she'd been addressed.

Kitty suddenly looked uncertain, like she feared she'd crossed into some forbidden territory. "Um," she honestly had no idea what to say.

Wanda settled down seeing the girl hadn't meant any harm. "Look, let's be honest… I was locked up in an insane asylum by my father for years and haven't been out all that long. I'm still getting used to iPods and the internet; guys aren't even on the menu yet. I wouldn't have the faintest idea what to expect. Besides, do you really think anyone can get past Pietro?" The others laughed, knowing she'd intended bringing some humor into things.

Tabby laughed the longest. Her cheeks still pink from the effort, she turned gleaming eyes towards Wanda. "Your brother is such a player I can't believe he'd have the nerve to try interfering in your love life!"

"Yeah, well, I think that's actually the problem. He figures they're all like him so every time some guy tries talking to me, he's right there threatening whoever it is until they just give up." Wanda saw pity on Jean's face and had to make it go away. "It doesn't matter anyway for now; like I said, I'm not ready."

"At least ya're smaht enough to know it," Rogue commented. Wanda appreciated her not making a big deal of it. She figured she and Rogue could actually be friends if they weren't on opposing teams. The girl seemed to get what to say and when to say it and didn't let many things become a big deal.

"Well, you don't have to go out with someone to think he's cute. So who's caught your eye, Wanda?"

Wanda could tell they weren't going to let this little Dr. Phil moment go so she wracked her brain trying to come up with an answer that would get them off her back. "I, uh," she stalled. A couple of people had come to mind, but she didn't want to bare her thoughts to these girls. She didn't know them very well, but she knew enough to realize the comments they'd be likely to make.

Jean, surprisingly, was the one to come to her rescue by distracting everyone. "Well, Tabby, you and Kitty both seemed awfully interested in Pietro this afternoon," she said in an insinuating, teasing way that had Kitty blushing and trying to come up with a plausible denial. Tabby had no compunctions about admitting what she thought, though.

"Why not? He's a hot guy and he's a lot of fun. Of course, he's not someone to take seriously, but that's perfect sometimes, right?" she winked and laughed. "Of course, Lance is pretty good-looking, too. And Kurt is so fun, and is really cute in a blue, furry kind of way… Some of those Acolytes aren't bad either. If I were younger I think Roberto would probably get me going and you all have to admit that Sam is just fine! And then there's Scott, but Jean will levitate me right out of the window if I say much about him and Logan's smokin' for an old guy."

Rogue was gaping at her, torn between laughing hysterically and being totally appalled. "Tabitha, sug', ya' just named practically ev'ry guy we know!"

The bubbly blonde only shrugged, accepting it easily. "Yeah, well almost every guy's got something going for him, right? Why be choosy when we have an all-you-can-eat buffet sitting right in front of us?"

Rogue shook her head, letting her grin say it all. "Well, like, what about you Rogue?"

"It doesn't realleh mattah since Ah have no intention o' ever doin' anything about it even if Ah do think one or two guys are somethin' special. Since ya're so 'ovah' Lance now," she taunted the petite brunette, "who's caught ya'r eye now, Kit?"

Kitty instantly began blushing furiously. "What makes you think I'm interested in someone?"

"Yeah, rahght!" Rogue scoffed, the others joining in.

"Well," she muttered with her head hanging low, muffling her words, "Colossus is awfully nice."

"Yeah, and he's totally built!" Tabitha enthused. Kitty threw a pillow at her irrepressible friend.

Wanda looked at the girl who'd been quietest so far. "Hey Jean," she got the girl's attention. "What if Cyke wasn't an option? Who would you want to go out with if your boyfriend wasn't available?"

Like Kitty, Jean blushed a bright red. Wanting to show she was trying to participate and not wanting to be the downer in their group, she confessed, "I think it would be a toss-up between Lance Alvers, that Gambit guy, and Ray."

Kitty stared at her wide-eyed. "Way to diversify, girlfriend!" Tabby encouraged as she realized the normally uptight girl had actually hit all three teams with her list. Rogue was stunned and couldn't form a coherent comment so she just swallowed loudly. Jean was into Remy? Well wasn't that just perfect! Wanda just sat back perversely enjoying the redheaded beauty's discomfort.

Gulping one last time, Rogue decided she'd had about all the girl time she could handle for the night. "Rahght… so, Ah'm hittin' tha sack now. It's been, uh, fun," she mumbled and then high-tailed it out of there.

She rushed towards her room, not noticing Logan and plowing into him. "Hey, slow down there, Stripes," he grabbed her arms to keep her upright. "What's up?" She wasn't normally so distracted. If that punk brother of Scott's had pulled something else he was going to rip the kid a new one.

"No-nothin'," she stuttered. "Ah'm just tahred." She pulled free of his hold and started walking away, with him watching after her for a moment, baffled. She looked over her shoulder to let him know, "Don't go check on tha othahs unless ya' want WAY too much infahmation for comfort, Logan."

He wasn't sure what she meant, but was willing to take her word for it. He nodded, and since that was exactly what he'd been on his way to do, he changed directions and walked back to sit with another cup of coffee. Rogue went to her room and settled on the bed with her iPod. She listened to some music while figuring out what it was about Jean's revelation that bothered her. Finally she settled on the idea that maybe it was just that it made Jean so _normal_ when she always thought of her as somehow being beyond all the typical stuff that everyone dealt with. There was also the fact that she certainly didn't want to share her feelings about the guys they knew with the others and she was really the only one besides Wanda (and who was going to challenge her?) who'd held out. Knowing Tabby and Wanda it wouldn't have been long until someone pointed it out and then they'd be pressuring her to open up.

She liked being closed off, thank you very much. _I'm good at being closed. _Her thoughts were distracted by the start of one of her favorite songs. Humming along with her eyes shut and her head bobbing to the beat, she didn't notice the glow of a pair of red eyes blinking from outside her window. Not much later, she slumped back on her pillows and curled up to let her legs slide under the covers. Rogue smothered a yawn, looking more like a little girl than a young woman about to finish high school. Her tree branch guardian was smiling at the innocent image as she slept on unawares.

While Kitty dreamed of large, brawny arms and thick Russian accents, the guys sat around talking about some of what they'd overheard when eavesdropping on the girls' talk earlier. They were currently joking with Kurt about Boom-Boom digging the fuzzy dude while he just laughed it off good-naturedly. Talk then turned to Scott, "How does it feel knowing your girlfriend is into so many guys?"

Pietro cocked his head to one side, commenting, "So just how open to new experiences do you think Jean is exactly?"

"Shut up, Pietro," Scott warned.

"Who would have thought she had it in her?" Todd's hypothetical question hung in the air until Kurt spoke up.

"I vould have… Vhat?" he wanted to know when he saw everyone staring at him. "It's alvays ze uptight one who have zat hidden wild side. Everyone knows zat," he insisted as though they were all idiots.

"Who do you think my sweetums Wanda wanted to talk about?"

While the others avoided answering, Lance just matter-of-factly informed him, "Todd, I doubt it was you. It's hard to say, but I wouldn't sweat it. She made it really clear she wasn't ready to be with anyone, so I wouldn't take it personally." His assurances took the sting out of his initial assessment and Todd settled back with no complaints or protests.

The talk continued for more than an hour more while the girls contentedly dreamt, many of those same young men drifting through the subconscious thoughts of one or more of them. Logan walked in and ordered them to, "Pipe down. For a bunch of guys lookin' at extra work and another long day tomorrow, you sure are stayin' up late." Those sitting around gulped and hurriedly went to their rooms to sleep.

The next morning saw all the teens again awakened far too early for people who were supposedly on vacation. They staggered wearily into the increasingly-familiar clearing, although Rogue was alert enough this time to have her usual make-up applied and was at least mildly functional. Scott was trying not to look at Jean any differently, not wanting to alert the girls to the fact that the guys had been listening in, but it was a struggle and he was actually thankful today for the necessity of wearing his glasses.

After Logan had announced that they would reconvene there after a quick, he emphasized the quick part, for a 'special' assignment they had that day, everyone wandered towards the dining cabin. Rogue stopped when she heard someone calling her name loudly enough to be heard, but still in a somewhat hushed voice. She turned to see none other than Alex walking with false confidence towards her. Feeling a little wearier at the mere sight she asked, "Yeah? What do ya' want?"

He looked nervously from side to side making sure they were really alone and then hunched his shoulders as he began speaking. "Look, Rogue, I – uh… Well, I'm sorry about yesterday. I shouldn't have said some of that and I was wrong to make you feel so freaked."

"Look, Havok, Ah'm sure ya're tryin' ta be nahce and all, or at least tryin' ta' get outta trouble with ev'ryone, but tha truth is we both know ya' meant what ya' said 'bout me an' mah powahs. It was mean, but that doesn't mean it isn't true or that ya' didn't say what ya' realleh thought. It just means ya're kinda a jerk." Alex would have argued back, but she kept going which forced him to bite his tongue for now. "As for what ya' realleh did wrong, it wasn't that ya' 'freaked meh out'," she used air quotes to let him know that wasn't how she saw it. "Tha' prahblem was that ya' thought it was okay ta' trah forcin' ya're _**totalleh unwanted**_ pass on someone who'd alreadeh told ya' no. Ya've gotta learn ta back off, little man. Big tahme."

Seeing how frustrated he was that things hadn't gone as he'd expected, she tried to placate him in hopes of both putting this all behind her and getting him to not blow it again. "Ah don't hate ya' or anything, but I sure don't trust ya'. I wanna, but it's just gonna take tahme, ya' know?" She really didn't think she was being unreasonable or overly nasty about it. In fact, she was probably going too easy on him, but she just wanted everyone to let it go at this point.

"So, we're cool?" he wanted to confirm.

"As cool as we're gonna be for awhahle," she allowed.

He nodded and they walked to breakfast with several feet separating them, but no real animosity. After eating in the noisy room, they all re-emerged feeling far readier to face whatever it was Logan had in store for them this time. It was hard to tell what he had up his sleeve this time as you never knew what he'd come up with. "Okay people, for today's challenge you will again be banned from using your powers. Today's going to be a bit different, though." He made a grumpy sound in the back of his throat and looked like he was not happy about this new assignment at all, which made everyone very nervous.

"We're going to have some others joining us today," he announced, getting back on-task. "There's another camp for kids a few miles from here and today they're coming here. You will all be assigned certain activities to lead and supervise. You'll be in charge of the little ankle-biters until they leave a three o'clock."

"Like, how fun!" Kitty immediately enthused.

Jean agreed, "This could be really nice. When do they arrive?"

Wanda wasn't in complete agreement, however. "Are you kidding me? You're letting us take care of impressionable young children?" she asked, her voice clearly indicating she thought Wolverine had lost his mind.

"Look kid, this wasn't my call," he speared her with a penetrating stare. "I can't believe they're letting me around the rug rats let alone some of you."

Lance chuckled a bit in agreement that their group hardly resembled what most would think of as a core group of good influences on the young of the world. "I don't know… it could be all right," Kurt added his opinion.

"Will any of their camp's counselors be coming with the kids," Pietro wanted to know, his mind already on the potential for pretty teenage girls to help pass the time.

"No," barked Logan, knowing exactly what Pietro had on his mind. "Now, if you're all through letting me know what you think of this, not that it will make any difference; let's get to who's doing what." He looked around the group as though daring them to share any more of their feelings. "Right," he gave a firm nod and consulted the paper in his hand. "The set-up goes like this… there are four different activities that take place in different parts of the camp and you'll be assigned to teams, one team supervising and leading each activity. The little guys will rotate from one activity to the next so all of them will get to try everything. All of you will eventually get to deal with every camper that's visiting." His tone showed that this was not something he considered a gift, exactly. "Keeping an eye on swimming will be Alex, for obvious reasons, along with Fred, who should be able to help with the youngest kids who can't do much but wade. Jean will be the third in this group since she's got her lifeguard course from last year." The three of them nodded and moved to the side to discuss who would take care of what aspects while Logan read out the next grouping.

"The next activity is canoeing. Todd, we figured you'd like being around the water and wouldn't mind the bugs much. Tabitha, try not to blow anything up, okay? This assignment should at least help you burn off some of that excess energy." She blew a huge bubble with her gum and popped it with her trademark grin. "Scott, you're there to try and keep things under control."

"No problem, Mr. Logan," he tried to sound confident, but still shot a wary look at Tabby. He, too, urged his group to stand aside a bit so they could hash out their responsibilities. Todd and Tabby followed him happily enough.

"This trio is gonna take care of hiking with the little buggers. If the three of you could keep them out of the poison oak I'd appreciate it," he said with a grimace as he remembered the state Bobby and Jubilee were in when they left. "Okay, Lance, Rogue, and Wanda… you're on hiking detail. Don't lose anyone and Wanda, no hexing the annoying ones. Remember these kids are not mutants and we're trying to keep our powers out of the spotlight. You all have the stamina to handle this one and, Rogue, it should minimize the chances of you having to deal with having some little mini-person running around in your head from unavoidable contact. No one should have to deal with that," he grumbled. She just laughed a little bit. She knew that deep down, way deep down, Logan liked kids but he was right, a bunch of kids in swim suits was not where she wanted to work today.

"So what do we get to do, Mr. Logan? Is it, like, something really cool?"

"Yeah, half-pint, it's awesome," he answered sarcastically. She just rolled her eyes and ignored his attitude. "You, Kurt, and Pietro will head up to the big cabin and supervise craft time. There are three different projects they'll each be making with you and you need to keep them on task and busy so they stay out of trouble." He knew Kitty would be thrilled, and she was as was demonstrated by her happy squeak, while Kurt would do well joking with the visiting campers and have more patience than most of the others. Pietro couldn't get in too much trouble there, he figured, and seemed to get along all right with Kitty and Kurt so it seemed like a good idea.

As the sound of engines drifted to them and the sight of large buses lumbered down the gravel and dirt lane leading to the edge of their camp, dust billowing out behind them, Logan informed them, "Looks like the kiddies are here. I hope you're ready for this." _Who am I kidding; I hope I'm ready for this!_


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:**** They aren't mine and this isn't giving me any money. I'm just having fun.**

Pietro raced off to the main cabin where he began looking over the sample projects showing what they were supposed to help these kids make today. Crafts, huh… not his usual thing, but at least he'd have Kitty to flirt with. At the thought a smirk lifted one corner of his mouth. Back in the main clearing Jean was enthusiastically coaxing her campers, calling out names from the print-out Logan handed her, to gather around her and Fred while Alex went to make sure the life vests were ready.

Scott naturally took his group's list and also rallied his campers for the first shift. Tabitha quickly began granting the kids nicknames while Todd looked a little nervous but tried to play it cool. When Logan turned to the hiking crew none of them moved to take the list from his hand. Finally Rogue gave Lance a shove forward and he had no choice but to take the paper from Logan's grasp. Lance was calling names but few listened and both girls could see him losing patience. Rogue whistled shrilly and Wanda shouted, "HEY!" When all the little campers looked up at them wide-eyed and a few chins quivering with fear, Wanda nodded contentedly. "That's better. Now listen for your names." Her voice was firm, but quiet. It went much smoother after that.

Kitty and Kurt held their list between them and took turns calling out the names from their first shift. Once all four groups had gathered together they each headed towards their appointed area. One of the children assigned to go canoeing whined a bit, "I wanna go do crafts… I don't wanna go in the stupid boats!" Scott was about to try to console the child into accepting their assignment when Tabby intervened.

"Let it go, kid. Life sucks sometimes and you can consider this your little life lesson for the day. Now, let's go!" With those words of wisdom she grabbed the little boy's hand and dragged him after her, his little feet skidding and his voice fading as she relentlessly continued on paying his protests no heed. Logan shook his head while watching the blond leave, but did nothing to intervene. He didn't want to be stuck with the little whiner all day. Let Scott handle it.

Jean and Alex soon had most of the kids in their vests and happily frolicking in the water. There were a few who were not very confident swimmers and expressed extreme reluctance, life vests or no, to going in the water. Jean was still figuring out what to do about it when she turned to see Freddie sitting in the water waist deep with the both little boys and the little girls clambering all over him, their giggles and splashing filling the air. He himself wore a big grin at their easy acceptance and lack of mean-spirited comments. Jean nudged Alex; they shared a smile and continued with a very successful first round of the day.

In the main cabin it was a little surprising when Kurt took charge and successfully got the kids interested, excited, and organized. Pietro found plenty of time to flirt with Kitty, but was actually getting as much of a kick out of listening to the kids' ingenuous comments as both of his partners. They all three moved around the room a lot so they could be on hand to help little fingers that got caught up in the project materials and soothing frazzled nerves when things didn't turn out as ambitious little minds hoped. Kurt cracked a lot of jokes that helped keep everyone smiling, including Kitty and Pietro while Pietro brought a few blushes to Kitty's sweet face. She couldn't help feeling a twinge of guilt over it, though, and that niggling feeling kept her from responding to him with anything other than friendship. He was picking up on that, but still held out some hope.

If only things were going quite a smoothly with the other groups. Actually, the hiking crew was faring far better than those leading the canoeing expedition. Tabby's little companion was in tears still. Toad had grossed out the little girls he was watching over by eating a few bugs. They were now busting out with declarations of how gross he was and nothing else, including paddling. Scott was so frustrated with his teammates behavior that he had snapped a couple of times impatiently which left the rest of the kids staring up at him nervously, as though he'd say something nasty to them next if they made one wrong move. Mentally he wrote off this first group as a failure and was just riding it out until they rotated in hopes that they'd do better next time.

Over on the hiking trails, they three teens had decided to use different trails with each group of campers. It would keep them from getting too bored and would give the little guys more to talk about since they'd have different experiences to share. The first group went on the trail that wound along the side of the mountain as it was the most exposed and would be awfully hot later in the day. Off they went, with Lance in the lead, Rogue mingling in the midst of the campers, and Wanda at the rear to keep an eye on any stragglers. Not far into the hike, the kids started getting restless. Wanda had no idea what to do with them. This was totally outside her experience and knowledge. She shot a desperate look at the other two.

Lance started pointing out different plants and teaching the kids how to tell them apart. He hit pay dirt when he noticed some tracks crossing the trail. He showed them to the eager children and helped them figure out that it was a raccoon's trail. They all immediately began looking for more tracks, scanning the ground diligently as they trooped along. By the time they tired of that activity, Rogue was ready for them. She started singing some of the silly songs she remembered from her own childhood and the kids were soon singing happily along. She may not have the best voice, but she was putting on a good show of being upbeat and cheery and that was all it took to please the little hikers and have them deciding they liked her. When Wanda looked at her with some surprise at one point, Rogue just shrugged and started another song. When they stopped at a convenient clearing with rocks and logs scattered around to sit on, she admitted, "Hey, if it keeps them happy and not complaining or crying I'll do it, ya' know?"

"No complaints here," Wanda stated. "I'm just glad you knew what to do."

They started back after their little break and reconvened with the rest of the groups on time. By the time the buses drove away in a huge cloud of dust late that afternoon, the X-Men and Brotherhood kids were exhausted. They sat around a big outdoor fire after dinner that evening roasting marshmallows and sharing some of the more entertaining moments they'd experienced throughout the day.

Kurt was protesting his treatment at the hands of one of the more rambunctious, rebellious children who'd put glue in his hair. Now, with the holographic image turned off, they could all see the clumps in his fur that he was still struggling to remove. The others all tried not to laugh at his dilemma, but he did look pretty funny with little blue tufts sticking out in all directions atop his head. Kitty was grinning about the sweet little boy who'd given her a rather sticky kiss with lips purple from fruit juice. "Pietro even charmed a few of the little girls," she laughed. He blushed before admitting, "What can I say? It doesn't matter how young or old, the ladies love Quicksilver." Kurt just grunted as he yanked another bit of glue free.

Tabby groused about how annoying little kids were. "All they did was whine and complain. I swear Scott purposely gave me the obnoxious ones," she asserted with a glare at the young man in question. He only sighed and, though no one could see it, they could all tell he was rolling his eyes.

"No, Tabby, but the way you talked to them and treated them made them hate you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded, cradling a handful of her little explosive balls in her palms.

"He's right, yo! You wouldn't even help them paddle the boat, but made them do it all." Todd was quick to point out what he'd noticed.

Tabby sat back, crossing her arms and letting a sulky expression settle over her face. "Yeah, well I explained that. It was to help them build character."

Jean and Alex commented on how great a time they'd had with their kids. Alex even went on to say, "Yeah, and Fred was awesome. The kids just loved him and he never got irritated at all." Fred blushed by did smile at the unexpected praise.

"I thought today was fun," he stated. "It was a lot more fun than that challenge course, anyway," he added the sentiment to which everyone agreed.

"You guys haven't said much… how was the hiking?" Pietro asked Lance, Wanda, and Rogue.

Wanda shrugged saying, "It was hiking. There isn't much to say. We kept them out of the poison ivy and oak vines, out of trouble, and didn't lose anyone so I guess it was good. Lance is really smart about outdoor stuff," she thought to comment.

"Yeah," Rogue agreed. "He was teachin' them all this stuff about the trees, plants, and animal tracks. They thought he was pretty cool."

Not liking the wuss image he thought people were getting of him, Lance tried to distract their attention and turn it towards a better target. "That was nothing to Rogue's singing, though."

Wanda smiled, which was almost as startling to the others as Lance's declaration had been. "Wait a minute, back up… Rogue, like, sang?"

Rogue just shot Lance a menacing glare, which he returned with a satisfied smirk as no one was now paying him any attention. "It was no big deal… it kept the little guys quiet so Ah didn't have to listen to them complain, that's all." She may be playing it tough, but Wanda, whom Rogue had just mentally dubbed Benedict Arnold, didn't let it go.

"She was a regular girl scout, belting out all these funny little songs that the kids ate up like cotton candy." She chuckled, "I think my personal favorite must have been the one about the gopher guts. What about you, Lance?"

He got into it, too, further moving his name up Rogue's crud list. "Oh I don't know… that one was good, but the best had to be the one about wishing she was a little marshmallow."

By this time the shock had worn off and everyone else was laughing hysterically. "Yeah, yeah," Rogue grumbled. "Laugh it up, people… ya've got to go to sleep sometime and when you do Ah'll be there."

"Hey, no complaints on the singing from me, Rogue," Lance assured with hand raised in surrender, "It kept the little guys happy and that's what matters."

She only narrowed her eyes at him and sat back with a huff of irritation. Fred lifted his flaming marshmallow up to blow out the fire and proceeded to suck it in, his eyes closing blissfully as the sugary sweetness filled his mouth. "I love roasted marshmallows." The talk continued fairly peacefully with the kids even including Alex more. Having noted the fact that Rogue was at least being civil with him, all but Kurt felt that they could at least do the same. The German, however, was far slower to forgive.

Logan sat back, cigar clenched between his gleaming teeth as he watched all the kids chattering together in the warm glow of the fire. _How are things going there, Logan?_ the professor wanted to know.

_All right, Charles. I admit I thought ya' were crazy when I first heard this plan, but it actually seems to be working for the most part. _He blew a stream of smoke upwards, watching it dissipate in the night air. _I've gotta say, though, that I'm still upset about the way Scott, Jr. talked to Rogue yesterday. He needs to know it's not okay to deal with any girl that way._

_Agreed, Logan. Perhaps, however, it would be best to wait until your return to the mansion to handle that particular issue._

_Yeah, I guess you're right. How much longer do ya' think it will be before we can move to the next stage in this plan o' yours?_

_Not much longer, old friend. I would say two more days at the most; it's likely that we'll recall all of you sooner than that. In fact, the Acolytes are only waiting for your groups to settle down for the night before making their departure._

_Gotcha. We'll wrap it up soon, Charles._

_No rush, Logan. I'm relieved to learn things are going so smoothly._ Logan only grunted, even though he was aware Charles would not be able to hear him. He looked up to see Rogue studying him while everyone else laughed and visited. His brow hiked, as was his custom, and she only tilted her head a bit. She knew something was up, but was willing to wait until it came out. Kurt appeared at her side then with a perfectly roasted marshmallow for her to eat. Thanking him, she broke eye contact with her mentor and turned her attention back to the group gathered together.

He watched the various kids hanging out and noticed the way Tabby was flirting with the Speedo kid. He could live with that; it was better than the punk trying to hook up with half-pint. She'd be out of her league with that one, in his opinion. Something told him, though, that Boom-Boom could handle him all right. He might not think much of this big scheme the professor had cooked up, but he'd known for awhile that the Tin Man wasn't with Magneto by choice. He seemed like an okay guy and would be a much better match for Shadowcat.

Kurt was still giving Alex the hairy eyeball, but other than that seemed okay with everyone. He knew the elf and Toad had already banded together to pull a couple of pranks on the other guys. Scott and Jean had finally come out as a couple, like that was supposed to be some kind of friggin' surprise or something. Blob was okay; a little slow, maybe, but he just needed a little direction and he'd be fine. The overgrown kid seemed like he'd follow anyone who showed him kindness. It was actually pretty sad in a way.

As his eyes continued scanning the group, the quiet raven-haired twin of Pietro caught his attention. Logan felt kind of bad for that Wanda girl. The others were friendly enough with her, but it was plain to see she was uncomfortable in most settings outside of battle. Rogue was sitting near the other loner, though, and the two seemed to at least get each other a little bit. Every once in awhile they'd exchange a remark or smirk. They both seemed content enough to be there, but not really be a part of things.

The truth was Rogue was the one of his kids right now that had him the most concerned. She always seemed on top of things and like she could handle anything at all that life through at her, but the night she'd lost control was still vivid in his mind and he hoped he never saw her that vulnerable or in that much agony again. Sometimes a little break in her expression would make him think that maybe her grip on things was less secure than she was letting on.

Picking up on a sound that no one else even heard, let alone would have taken notice of, he snuffed out his smoke and rose to his feet. Rogue instantly looked at him. Trying to be subtle and succeeding for the most part, she sauntered over to him asking, "What's up?" in a quiet voice.

"Just doing a quick perimeter check, Stripes. Nothing to worry about."

She gave him a cynical look and squinted one eye suspiciously at him, "Uh-huh… right." He was hoping she was going to let it go at that, but he should have known better. "So, what's up?"

He scratched his jaw as he contemplated what to say in answer. He didn't want to lie to her, but knew Charles would have his head if he let anything slip. She could read his dilemma in every movement. "Nevah mind, Logan. Ah'll be a good little X-Man and sit here pretending Ah have no idea the professor's up to somethin'. We'll eventually find out, though, right?"

Relieved that she was letting him off so easily, he let her know, "Yeah, kid. You'll know soon enough."

She nodded a little. "Okay, then." Only after he'd walked out of the light cast by the fire and disappeared into the woods did anyone other than Scott or Rogue notice his absence. When someone commented on it, Rogue just told them what he'd said about a quick perimeter check. It wasn't long after that that the group decided to douse the fire and head to bed. It had been a long and tiring day keeping up with those kids and doing it all without accessing any powers.

As they trudged back, Wanda and Rogue were hanging back a bit from the rest of the crowd. "You okay, Wanda?"

Wanda gave her a strange look before responding. "Why do you ask?"

Rogue gave a half shrug. "Ah don't know… ya're being quiet, even more so than usual and ya' seem more distracted or something."

"Why do you care?" Wanda knew her voice was coming out rather harshly, but she didn't know what to make of this conversation.

"Look, Ah was just makin' sure you were all right. That's what friends do. If ya' don't want ta talk about it, just say so!" Rogue was getting irritated now and felt angry that she was being forced to say this kind of crap when everyone knew she hated talking about her feelings and all that garbage.

Wanda stopped dead in her tracks. She blinked at Rogue who only cocked her hip and stood with crossed arms and a glower on her face. "We're friends?"

"Well, yeah… Ah think so," Rogue gruffly admitted. "But we don't hafta be, ya' know."

"No!" Wanda protested immediately. She instantly calmed and resumed her typical, hardened attitude. "No, that's cool."

"Fahne." Rogue just kept looking at Wanda, who had no idea what the other girl was waiting for. Rogue's left brow hiked up in perfect imitation of Logan. "So, are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah… I'll be fine."

Rogue knew she often felt the same way… though you weren't really 'okay' you knew you would be and you SO didn't want to talk to anyone about it. "Alrahght, then. We'd better get back." They both looked to where the others were already almost out of sight. Before they'd taken three steps, however, they were interrupted by a smooth, accented voice which Rogue felt like she was hearing every ten minutes lately.

"Mon chérie, what's dis song ya' were singin'? I would love ta hear it," he commented as he stepped up behind her and slid his arm around her waist.

"Not a chance, Gambit," she retorted with a mix of playfulness and firm resolve while pulling away from his arm. What was he thinking getting that close to her? What if he'd accidentally touched her? She did not need his thoughts and memories running around in her head any more than they already had thanks to past encounters.

"Aw, c'mon chère," he pled with no shame. Wanda was watching the entire exchange closely. At first she'd been shocked by their easy familiarity. It took only moments, though, for her to see the humor in the whole thing and start egging him on.

"It really was something… you ought to sing it for him." Teasing in such friendly ways was new territory for the normally angry young woman, but she found herself enjoying it more than she would have imagined.

"Ya' aren't helping much, Wanda," Rogue commented shooting a menacing glare at her 'friend'. Later they'd have to have a little talk about what friendships entailed, Rogue decided.

Seeing the look, Wanda decided maybe it was time to head to their cabin. Before she got very far, though, she saw the rest of her father's team. The big Russian guy nodded at her. He seemed relatively okay so she nodded back. The flame guy gave her a smirk and sauntered closer. "So, sheila, you look good tonight," he commented with a strange light in his eyes.

While John flirted with Wanda, who was trying to figure out what half of what he said meant Remy continued to coax what he wanted from Rogue. Her eyes squinted cynically as she demanded, "Are you usin' that 'charm' crap on meh, Cajun?"

"Non, Rogue. I only evah did that once wit' ya'. I'd really like ya' to do it for me cause ya' willin' an' ya' wanna give me somet'in' special b'fore Remy leaves in a little while."

Without stopped to self-edit, Rogue's runaway mouth got her in trouble as usual. "Ya're leavin'? Tonight?"

Remy fought hard to keep the grin from his lips. That inflection in her suddenly soft voice said it all. His belle femme was going to miss him. At last, some progress! She really was starting to open up to him. Rather than let his satisfied happiness show, he focused on her. "I wish I could stay, but dere really isn't any ot'er way. I promise ta' be wit' ya' 'gain soon, dough. Now, how 'bout dat song b'fore I gotta leave?" He'd edged closer as he murmured to her, running his fingers along her arm and over her hand, which was covered in lightweight gloves that made it easy to feel his touch. Her hand shook slightly under his caress.

"It's stupid, really Rems. Ya' don't want ta hear it, trust meh. This is not what ya' wat to have in ya' head when ya' go."

"S'il vous plait (Please), mon Rogue…" Remy didn't even clearly understand why it had become so important to him that she do this before he left. He wanted so much to be free to tell her all that was happening, but he'd given his word and that meant something to him. He wouldn't betray that, no matter how much he wished it. He knew this whole thing seemed stupid, but if she would do this for him he thought it would show a growing trust between them. It would have to for her to entrust him with something she obviously found embarrassing and humbling, two circumstances his Rogue avoided like the plague.

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Ah can't believe Ah'm gonna do this," she muttered and he knew it was true. She was starting to trust him, even if it was with nothing more important than some silly camp song. It may be a baby step, but he'd take it. Her low, husky voice was barely above a whisper and he knew only Victor would stand even the remotest chance of sharing this moment with him. "Oh Ah wish Ah were a little slice o' orange, slice o' orange; Oh Ah wish Ah were a little slice o' orange, slice o' orange; Ah'd go squirty, squirty, squirty ovah ev'rybody's shirty; Oh Ah wish Ah were a little slice o' orange."

She paused now, hoping that had been enough to satisfy him. He tilted his head down to be even closer to her while giving her an encouraging smile. She huffed at how obstinate he could be most of the time. Rogue picked the song up again. "Oh Ah wish Ah were a little marsh-mallow, marsh-mallow; Oh Ah wish Ah were a little marsh-mallow, marsh-mallow." Remy kept thinking how cute the way she hitched her voice in the middle of marshmallow to make it fit the rhythm of the song was to him. She kept going, looking down to avoid his eyes, which she was certain were full of mocking humor at her expense. "Ah'd go messy, messy, messy ovah ev'rybody's dressy; Oh Ah wish Ah were a little marsh-mallow."

Keeping her eyes averted she let her vulnerability show a little more. "Rems, Ah told ya' it was dumb. Let's stop now."

"Is dere more?" was all he asked. He didn't know how she could be oblivious to how adorable she was right now in his eyes. When she nodded he gave her hand a tug to wordlessly urge her on.

If it was possible, her singing was even quieter now. "Oh Ah wish Ah were a little mos-quito, mos-quito; Oh Ah wish Ah were a little mos-quito, mos-quito; Ah'd go bitey, bitey, bitey undah ev'rybody's nighty; Oh Ah wish Ah were a little mos-quito." She faded after that, finally admitting, "There were more verses, but Ah couldn't remembah them so we just did those a bunch o' times."

Remy tamped down the desire to let some of the comments that were racing through his mind as he knew that would only lead her to believe she was right about him. "I bet the kids loved it."

She gave her most genuine smile of the evening. "Yeah, they really did. It was kinda fun. Ah haven't spent a lotta time with kids, ya' know? It was fun, though."

When the metal orbs hummed into sight, Remy knew his time here had run out. For now, he had to leave her. "Looks like you're ride is here," she commented trying not to let it show that she thought she might actually regret his leaving. Rogue knew, deep down, that she was actually going to miss the swamp rat. Who knew how long he'd be busy with Magneto's missions? It could be months before she might see him again.

"Yeah, it's time for this Cajun ta' go, but I'll see ya' soon, cherie. Just when ya' least expect it ya'll turn 'round an' dere I'll be."

She scoffed, trying to play down her moments of weakness. "Yeah, lahke that's a good thing!"

Before she knew what he was planning, he leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "I'll miss ya', too, chere." Then he tugged her near for a tight hug before moving away. Just before distance forced them to release one another's hands, he lifted hers for a butterfly light kiss on her knuckles. Rogue watched him start to climb into the shiny sphere.

John soon distracted her by calling out, "See ya' later sheila!" Waving with careless exuberance, he shot a very flirtatious wink Wanda's way before the orb closed over his grinning countenance. Victor actually said goodbye, as well, in his own way. "Be careful and kick that punk's, well don't let him get away with anything else if he tries it," he grumbled, having remembered he probably ought to watch his mouth around the kid.

"Ah can handle it, thanks Victor," she even smiled a tiny bit as he disappeared. Piotr was too busy looking towards the warm yellow glow coming from the upstairs rooms in the girls' cabin to say any kind of farewells. As soon as the last of the balls whizzed away in the bright moonlight, Logan emerged from the trees.

"All right, time to hit the sack. Let's go now," his husky, grumpy voice told them. Even though he seemed as bad-tempered and harsh as ever, somehow both girls felt the rough affection and warmth that lay underneath and took comfort in it. Wanda was surprised that one of the first people she trusted would be this man, but there was simply something steadfast about this guy that you just knew you could count on when it came down to it. Rogue looked off in the direction the orbs had taken but finally moved on when Logan came up beside her, threw his massive arm around her shoulders, and said, "Come on, Stripes. He'll be back. Whether we like it or not." At his faux grumblings she let out a shaky little giggle.

"Ya' know deep down ya' lahke him, Logan," she teased back.

"Hmph!" was the reply he gave. So far he liked the thief more than he thought he would and more than he wanted to. The kid was being good to Rogue, was holding up his end of things, and seemed to follow through when he said he'd do something. He also brought out a side of Rogue they hadn't seen near enough of, but none of that would be admitted openly by the feral man who'd adopted an avuncular role when it came to the girls at the Institute. It would take an almost supernatural act to make him declare some guy good enough for one of his girls, Logan knew.

Rogue and Wanda entered and went directly to their rooms, their fatigue catching up to them now that things were quiet and still long enough for them to actually feel it. Rogue was about to turn out her light when Kitty's face phased through the wall opposite the bed to ask, "Rogue, where were you and Wanda for so long? We thought you got, like, lost or something," she joked with a laugh.

"No, we just," Rogue trailed off figuring out what to say that wouldn't sound suspicious and wouldn't be an out and out lie. "Uh, we were just takin' our time, talking, an' enjoying the night for a few minutes." Yeah, that would work.

Kitty's head tilted to one side curiously, looking far too much like her namesake for a moment. "Oh. Okay. Well, good night, Rogue," and then her head disappeared as quickly as it had poked through before. The entire camp, with the exception of Logan, was asleep in no time.

In the morning birds were singing cheery little tunes to greet the rising sun that shone down on a bright new day. There was a light breeze rustling through the leaves like soft wind chimes outside the windows. Workers were already bustling in the camp kitchen preparing food for the hungry campers and Logan had a steaming cup of coffee in hand as he strode down the upstairs hall pausing before each door to ensure the inhabitants were stirring inside. Kitty had music playing as she sang along. He could hear by her steps that she was bouncing around the room as she prepared for the day ahead.

Jean's room was quieter with steady, measured movements and the slight grating of the wooden drawers opening and closing. He moved along to hear Tabitha talking on a phone while she also listened to music cranked up even louder than Kitty's. From Wanda's room, on the other side, only the sounds of grousing and groans filtered through the wooden door so he let her know they only had ten minutes and immediately heard the tell-tale thunk of someone throwing something at the door. He chuckled while striding on to Rogue's door. There was barely the rustle of a sheet. Without mercy Logan banged once on the door. "Rise and shine, Stripes. Ten minutes until we meet for your daily assignments."

He heard her grunt a word he shouldn't let her get away with saying, but chose to let it go this time. She knew he could hear her so she didn't even raise her voice to announce, "Rogue's dead. Y'all just go 'head without her. Services will take place this afternoon." Logan couldn't help it, he barked out a short laugh that surprised even him.

"Come on, darlin'. You only wish you were dead. Now get up."

"Yeah, yeah…" he heard her grumble, but he could tell she was doing as he'd told her so he went back downstairs. The smells of their lotion and hair junk were irritating his sensitive nose. He decided to escape by checking on the boys to make sure they, too, would be on time.

Ten minutes later they all stood in a loosely formed semi-circle facing Logan. "Maybe ve'll have ze day off," Kurt suggested, though not very hopefully.

"Yeah, right," Pietro snarked.

"Pipe down," Logan ordered. He pointed to a pile of jumbled face masks, padding, and other equipment they couldn't quite make out. "After breakfast you'll have one and a half hours to take care of your tasks for today." He gave the grinning girls a smirk before turning to the boys, "You guys are gonna have to work fast to get all your stuff and theirs done in that amount of time." Everyone traded teasing remarks at this point. After a few minutes Logan got them to settle down again. "When time's up, you meet me back here so that we can sort out this gear and get you all set for the 'Last Man Standing' paintball fight."

"Sweet!" Tabitha yelled.

"Yo, finally something fun," Todd agreed.

Amidst other comments, Logan raised his voice. "So, are you skipping breakfast or what?" That had them scattering, their enthusiasm not dampened in the slightest. The chatter carried over throughout their meal and Logan knew this was a good idea. This one had been all him. He felt like they needed something a little easier after the past couple of days.

Soon the girls were gathered around the pool where they could relax while still watching the boys scurrying around doing double the workload. Rogue had even relaxed enough to sit out in a borrowed pair of shorts and cami. Her skin, unused to much exposure, was so pale she stayed in the protective shade, but it still felt good to bask in the heat without sweltering the entire time.

She waved at her brother who'd just teleported to deliver some trash to the dumpster behind the parking area. He returned her greeting and got back to work, eager to finish up. Kurt was looking forward to today's exercise as much as all the guys. By the time the guys were done, the girls were more than ready to get on with it as well. Rogue had changed into clothing that covered her more fully and had pulled her hair back out of the way, as had the rest of them.

The guys were there and ready to go to it when the girls arrived. There was some trash talk thrown around, but none of it was malicious. "Okay, listen up so we get on with this. Again you're not allowed to use any powers for this exercise. I mean it," he warned with a look around. He went on to outline the perimeter of the area they were allowed to use for their battle and then reminded them, "Don't forget, this is last man standing, so any alliances you might have lined up are only going to get you so far. Eventually there can only be one person left."

"Is it me, or does he sound like zat guy from Highlander?" Kurt asked Scott who laughed in reply. Scott had been in an exceptionally good mood since Jean and he had gone public with their feelings for one another. Right now he stood with an arm wrapped around Jean's shoulders as he shared in Kurt's joking.

Logan helped hand around the gear and then gave them three minutes to scatter before he declared the start of the game. He timed it on his watch and then called out the start. Scott and Jean had banded together, surprise, surprise, and were back to back behind a large tree. Kitty was tucked away somewhere waiting for the best time to strike. Tabby was sneaking up on Todd, who spied her sooner than she'd counted on and turned to shoot her first.

If it all moved this quickly then the exercise would be over way too soon. Thankfully the others learned from Tabitha's overconfidence and were playing it far more cautiously. She came to sit beside Logan, her non-stop commentary worse than the announcers during his beloved hockey games. Rogue was slinking around a massive tree, peering around it to watch what would happen next. Kurt began to move into a stronger strategic position, his path leading him to higher ground giving him the sightline advantage over his opponents. What he didn't notice was Wanda had already thought of that maneuver and was able to take him out.

He acknowledged the nice shot before traipsing up to where the other two were watching over events. Wanda, buoyed by her success, skirted the edges of the given perimeter obviously hoping to move in on Scott and Jean's position. Scott, however, noticed her movements and skillfully picked her off. She huffed, but said nothing as she exited the playing field. Todd was skulking about and managed to use the distraction Wanda inadvertently provided to catch Jean with a shot to the stomach. When Scott demanded to know if she was okay, Wanda rolled her eyes while Tabby made gagging sounds.

"It's a paintball, Cyke, not a nuke. She's fine. Red, off the field." Logan's words helped Scott see how ridiculous he was being and he turned his attention off his girlfriend and back to the game. While Todd gave a cry of triumph doing his version of a victory dance, Kitty calmly sniped him square in the chest. Her shot was so direct and in such close proximity that it knocked Todd off his feet. He let out a little squeal as he flew back to land on his rear end with a thud. "Oh man, that ain't hip in the slightest!"

Things were slow for awhile after that 'kill' since those left were being far more careful about leaving themselves open to attack. Pietro was stalking Kitty without noticing Lance trailing him surreptitiously. When Pietro shot her, hit paint marking her shoulder and knocking her out of the game, Lance poked his gun through the branches of the bush concealing him and hit Pietro in the back. Both of those who'd been hit moved out of range and made their way to the growing number of observers on the slope overlooking the valley Logan had selected for this morning.

Scott was making wise tactical decisions, but Rogue was quieter than both he and Lance, who'd given away his position when taking that last shot. She took out Lance and then raced off through the underbrush too quickly for Scott to get a good shot in. After twenty more minutes of waiting, the bulk of their group watched with bated breath as Scott made what would prove to be his fatal mistake. He focused too much on the obvious and ignored part of his surroundings.

Her team leader moved directly under the branch she'd been perched on for the better part of five minutes. She took aim and removed him from the competition. Scott let her know that she'd done a great job while she dropped from her tree and brushed the bits of bark and leaf off her legs. Scott shook her hand and she looked up at Logan waiting for praise that wouldn't come. Her mentor only shook his head. Seeing that she cocked her head to one side, wondering what the problem was when she felt the impact of a paintball against the center of her back.

"Did I win?" Fred wanted to know, a big, slightly goofy, grin on his pudgy face as he asked.

"Yeah, you won, Bub. Good work," Logan complimented the boy who'd had the sense to know when to sit tight and when to come out of hiding. Everyone congratulated Fred and then moved to put their gear away back in the main camp. "Lunch time, people." They all ate companionably enough, the groupings no longer being dictated by teams but mixing together.

After depositing their dirty trays, they all sat along the dock, their feet dangling in the water. Only Rogue left her shoes on and her feet folded up under her. Logan came to where they rested and she was the first to ask, "So, what's next?"

"You pack."

"What?" Kitty asked, wanting clarification.

"Something's up back at the Institute and we're all being recalled. We leave first thing in the morning. Get your things together and ready to go so we aren't stuck waiting around on anyone. After you're done with that, you can just have the rest of the day to relax since this may be your last chance for awhile."

"Is everything okay at home?" Scott wanted to know, concerned about the change in plans. Jean stood at his side sharing his trepidation that something may be wrong with the Professor or Storm.

"Don't worry, no one's hurt or in danger. Charles needs up back sooner than planned and we're expected to bring the Brotherhood with us. It'll be fine," he tried to assure them, not certain at all that he believed that himself.


	5. Chapter 5

**A.N.:**** This is going to be the final chapter of this fic as my muse has apparently left the building. I did my best and hope this doesn't disappoint. Thank you so much for taking this journey with me and sharing all your fun thoughts and reactions along the way. I had a great time sharing this with y'all.**

**Disclaimer:**** They aren't mine and this isn't giving me any money. I'm just having fun.**

Everyone stood with their bags piled around them in the main clearing they'd been meeting in every morning. "Okay, kids, the jet will be here in about fifteen minutes. When it gets here load up and we'll get back to the mansion. Brotherhood kids, you're comin' with us."

"Yeah, I heard from Mystique and Mags told Pietro so we're cool with that," Lance let Logan know with no fuss.

Logan nodded once before letting them know they should hike to the huge clearing up the mountain a ways. While they started up the path he went to shake hands with the head counselor from the camp and followed behind the group. Other than the usual taunts and teen griping and teasing everything seemed fine. It wasn't long before the jet arrived and they were flying back to the familiar environs of the Institute.

When they made their way to the large library, not only were Storm and the Professor there to greet them, but both Mystique and Magneto were flanking him. The entire group came to an abrupt halt. "Yo! Mystique, what are you doing here? And Buc- I mean Magneto, you hate Professor X!" Fred started to laugh at Todd's slip-up with Magneto's name, but a quick jab from Lance's elbow kept him quiet.

Charles' only indication of how humorous he found Todd's candid reaction was the slight upward quirk of his lips. "Ahem, yes Todd… as all of you see, we have been quite busy in your absence. The three of us have news for you all. Perhaps, however, it would be best to allow my companions to explain," he indicated both Erik and Raven.

Rogue, who'd been standing towards the rear of the group, saw the Acolytes clustered off to the side of the room before her friends caught sight of them. John smirked at her and waved his fingers at her in greeting which had her fighting down the urge to smile broadly. Her lips did curve up the slightest bit as she saw Victor and Piotr both of whom inclined their heads at her. Remy mouthed the words, "Good to see you, chérie." He winked at her, bringing a deep rosy blush to her cheeks. She abruptly turned away from them to give the three leaders her attention.

Erik was speaking. "As you can see, things have changed… we believe these changes are for the better and will benefit all mutants. Our three groups will be working together from this point on. While we may not all believe completely the same things, that is true in any group and we trust that our skills and talents will blend well together to create a stronger, more influential force for the defense of all mutants as well as strengthening mutant/human relations. I have come to see that prejudice in all its forms is an ugly thing that will never bring positive results for any of those involved."

He then nodded to Mystique who added, "We will not force any of you to join us in banding together to create a unified front, however each of us urges you to seriously consider things before you choose to leave. The Brotherhood house will remain available for any who choose to reside there, but our hope is that most will choose to move into this mansion so that all are available on a moment's notice as well as enjoying the protection that the Institute's superior security system offers."

Charles now re-entered the discussion. "This is, we are aware, an unexpected development for most of you and a very big decision. Please, take your time in choosing your path and until that choice is made, know that our doors are open to all of you. If you have any questions I recommend you find one of the three of us or any of the instructors here." Recognizing his statement for the dismissal it was, they began trickling from the room. Remy had departed immediately after Rogue while the rest of the Acolytes waited until the younger mutants had cleared the room already.

Catching up with Rogue, Remy said nothing but walked alongside her with his hand on her lower back. She walked outside, not slowing her pace until they reached the gazebo overlooking the cliffs, the sound of the surf crashing against the rocks below drifting up in a calming soundtrack. Once they'd settled he asked her, "What ya' t'inkin', chère?"

She shrugged. "Ah guess Ah'm mainly feeling a little bit stupid. Looking back there were a lot of clues that this was coming, but Ah missed 'em somehow." She gazed over the railing at the horizon. "It doesn't really matter what Ah think since it's not mah call, right?" She looked over her shoulder at the man listening so attentively, smirking at him while admitting, "Ah'm fahne with y'all being here. It could even be fun."

He began to say something flirtatious when she spoke again. "Ah mean, John's hysterical!" Remy's smile dropped from his face instantly as he digested what she'd said. She turned to face him fully, all fake wide-eyed innocence. "Is something wrong, Remy?"

His eyes narrowed dangerously. They were interrupted before too long by the arrival of Kurt, Kitty, and Tabby who were looking for Rogue in hopes of discussing the latest mansion drama. Seeing Rogue not only sitting with one of Magneto's Acolytes, not just with the particular baddie who'd almost blown her up and had kidnapped her, but she was sitting there looking totally relaxed and even, dare they say it, content. Kurt gaped at his sister. Kitty, while surprised, was less stunned than Kurt since she happened to know a little more about their history and the fact that Rogue kept a certain item hidden away in their room. Tabby simply said, "All right Rogue! You go girl. He's," she paused to give him a good going over with her very detail-oriented eyes, "positively scrumptious!" At her leering remark, Remy smirked her way, but stayed firmly entrenched with Rogue, even moving his arm from the back of the bench seat to her shoulders.

Rogue knew she should smack him for that one, and she would… once Tabby left. It might be petty, it may be a con, but it was fun. "Hey, what's up?"

"I think ve should be asking you zat, schwester."

"Ah just came out ta think things through, ya know? An' then Remy happened to wander out here, too." She couldn't help teasing her brother a little more. He just made it so easy. "Ah mean, we're teammates now an' ya' know how Scott's always tellin' us how important it is ta really know your team an' all that."

Kurt's unique sulfuric cloud announced his almost instantaneous arrival about a foot away from the 'couple' in the gazebo. Kurt tried to reach for Rogue's arm only to have her jerk away from him. "Ah know ya' aren't seriously tryin' ta tell me who ta hang out with, Kurt," she said more as a warning than anything else. A little teasing and joking around was fine, but no one told her who to be friends (_or whatever we are_) with.

Remy and Kitty both felt it was time to intervene while Tabby stood back enjoying the show. "Tenez dessus, chéri. (Hold on, darling.) Your petit frère d'elfe (little elf brother) is just tryin' ta look out for you. Nightcrawler," he now addressed Kurt directly, "you are not da firs' one ta question my motives. Mr. Wolverine already had your professor try ta read my mind."

"What do you mean 'try'?" Kitty wanted to know.

"It would seem dat part of my mutation involves an innate psychic block makin' it almos' impossible to read my mind. We found out if I focus on lettin' 'im in, he can see a little." He looked right at Kurt to finish. "What he found dere is what made bot' him an' de Wolverine okay wit' lettin' Remy in here."

Kurt still didn't look convinced, but he did stop trying to force Rogue out of there. Kitty sat down across from the pair and asked, "So, like, what do you think of all this?" Her question was a general one not directed at any one person.

"We were just talking about that," Rogue said. "Ah was actually about ta ask Remy what he thought o' the whole thing." She looked to him expectantly. His glance shot around the small group as he weighed how candid he should be with all of them. Were it still just the two of them he'd be totally open, but he wasn't sure how much to share with Kurt and Tabitha. Kitty he pretty much trusted, but he didn't know enough of these other two to feel comfortable with letting them have all the facts.

He settled for saying, "I was wit' Magneto undah contract… an arrangement made wit' mon père. Now he's given me an out an' I chose ta' contact de Prof. before I even knew 'bout dis set-up dey were already workin' up." There, that gave them the general gist of things, hopefully helped to clear him somewhat with his amour's brother, and the look he was currently exchanging with Rogue left him assured that she knew there was more to it and that all she had to do was ask.

"Well, it's not like I've got somewhere better to be and I've already lived with both the Brotherhood and here… don't know why I'd suddenly have a problem now. Especially since it just means even more smokin' hot guys than before." Her salacious grin would make most nervous. Remy imperceptibly edged closer to Rogue while winking at the blond in his usual irrepressible way. Kurt looked aggravated.

Seeing his sulky expression, Tabby assured him with a hand on his thigh, "Aw! Don't worry, elf… I still think you're too cute for words!" With that, she pinched his cheek and grinned when he blushed at her outrageous behavior.

"What about you, Kit?" Rogue wondered. She knew a lot could come into play here for her roommate. She'd be living in the same house as her ex and the guy she was currently interested in. Kitty may come across as pretty airheaded, but Rogue knew her friend was smart and actually methodical in her rationalizations as long as it had nothing to do with her love life. She could see Kitty mulling things over even more as she pondered how to answer.

Kitty thought about the awkwardness of living with Lance, but knew that they were both older now and were both ready to move on so it would probably be okay. If anything, it would be more weird living with Piotr whom she was in that strange getting-to-know-each-other-better-but-not-really-admitting-anything-yet stage. As long as they were able to keep out of the limelight she thought that would be okay. It was so easy to predict how the others would react, but not so easy to evaluate her own feelings.

Scott would be bent out of shape for weeks and would make little barbed remarks to anyone from the other teams but would eventually come around. Jean would be so busy trying to reason with Scott that she wouldn't have time to be angry for herself. Besides, she trusted the Professor so much that there was no way she'd go against him. Tabby was only interested in the fresh meat it would bring into the house. Jubes probably wouldn't care too much and Bobby would play pranks on them until he found another guy to plot with from the other teams and then he'd be fine.

Storm would remain enigmatic and cordial because that was just the way she handled everything while Mr. Logan would grunt, snarl, and flip his claws out every five minutes until the newbies had proven both their skills and their loyalties. Amara would hate whoever didn't bow down at her feet, which was no different from how she acted with most of the people here already.

Kitty thought about each team member and realized there weren't many who made her too uncomfortable. The only ones that still made her nervous were Sabertooth and Mystique, neither of whom she understood or trusted. "I think I'm okay with it and that it could actually be good in a lot of ways. If we're working together that means instead of being so busy fighting each other, we can actually try to do some good towards protecting mutants in general, right?"

Tabby looked thoughtful and the others slowly began nodding. "Zat's true," Kurt admitted. Remy woke up to the fact that this little girl was sharper than he'd thought. No wonder she and Rogue had formed their close friendship that seemed so unlikely on the surface.

"Well," Rogue slapped her hands down on her legs and started to stand, "it's almost time ta eat and Ah'm hungry. Anyone else goin' inside?" Kurt had bamfed the moment she'd mentioned the food awaiting them. Kitty laughed and she, Rogue, Tabby, and Remy walked together towards the back door.

Remy leaned down to whisper in Rogue's ear when no one would notice, "We will talk later, mon cherie?" He asked rather than stated. She nodded without looking at him since she knew he was trying to be subtle. He leaned even closer, his breath moving her hair with every word. "Meet me by de pool at 'bout ten o'clock, bien (alright)?"

She only nodded, letting a secretive smile slip over her lips for the barest second. They ate mostly with each group sitting together. One table held Rogue, Wanda, Lance, Kitty, and Tabby but they were the only ones to break the trend. It took a little effort for Rogue to make it out alone. A bunch of the girls were gathered in her room with Kitty to talk about everything and they'd accepted Wanda readily enough, although she took the chance to leave when Rogue did since she was feeling overwhelmed. Some of them were pretty nosy.

Wanda could see Rogue trying to figure out how to shake her as they walked the hallway together and said with her usual lack of subtlety, "Don't worry. I'm not going to get in your way. You go on out and hang with Gambit. I just couldn't listen to one more giggle. I'm going to see what Pietro's doing."

"Thanks, Wanda," was all Rogue said, her excitement slipping through more than she probably realized. She dashed off while Wanda went towards the hall where most of the boys roomed. Rogue, meanwhile, was focused on slowing her pace and her heartbeat as she walked with measured casualness to where she could see Remy sitting on the edge of the pool, his feet dangling in the water.

His face lit up when he saw her and she couldn't prevent dropping the pretense. "I'm glad ya' came, Rogue. Dere's t'ings I want ya ta know dat I didn' want ta say in front o' everyone else."

"Ya' don't have to, ya' know Remy. It's not like Ah have any right ta'…" she trailed off when he held up one hand.

"I want ya' t'know dese t'ings, chere." When she stayed quiet and just looked trustingly up at him, he took a deep breath and began. "I was promised in marriage t' my old friend Belle. We were supposed t' bind th' alliance 'tween th' two warring guilds. De day y'all called 'bout Apocolypse was my wedding day."

"Did ya' love her?"

'Yeah, I love Belle still… but not de way a man loves his wife. I didn't have much choice dough an' so dere we were." He broke off to pick up her hand and play with her fingers. "Ya' need to know, mon Rogue, dat I wanted not'ing more dan I wanted t'be wit' ya'. Seeing reports o' what happened 'bout scared me t' death wit' worry over ya'." He lifted her hand to kiss her glove-clad palm. "I was so glad ya' were okay."

Was that a sighing sound? No, Rogue decided, she must have been mistaken. Remy's eyes had a suspicious twinkle, but she knew that was far from uncommon with him and let it go. Since he was letting his empathy have free reign right now, he'd been picking up on the emotions of the large group sequestered just out of sight for a little while now. He'd had to fight his instincts to smirk at the majority of the females and to chuckle at the males. If he allowed Rogue to get too distracted, though, he knew it would be hard to find another time to do this and he wanted to do it as soon as possible. Nothing hidden between them, he'd finally know whether she'd give them a chance.

He shook it off and continued his story. "We never finished de ceremony 'cause Belladonna's brother interrupted an' started fightin' me. In self-defense I wound up killin' 'im. I swear, chère, dere was nothin' I could do."

She nodded at him. "Ah know, Rems. Ah do," she assured him when he still looked uncertain. Seeing her sincerity he went on to tell her about being banished to keep the peace and how that and his loss of control led to his brief and horrific affiliation with Sinister and then Magneto. She'd gotten bits of this through different brief moments of absorption when he'd refused to be careful around her. Rogue could see though that he needed to do this. He needed to come clean with her for some reason she didn't understand and she was willing to sit here and listen.

Both she and Remy were speaking in hushed voices to maintain their privacy and ignoring the telltale rustling coming from the bushes near the side of the pool house behind them. Apparently she'd been right about that sound earlier. They lowered their voices so much now that they were practically whispering.

He talked about some of the awful things he'd seen and done and then his ongoing talks with and even negotiations with Xavier. Finally he'd gotten out all he wanted to say about the events that had led him here. "So," she was still wrapping her mind around some of what he'd revealed and wondering why he'd needed to tell her, "Ah get what ya're sayin' and Ah know that ya're not tha only one who's done things they aren't exactly proud of, me included. What I don't get is why ya're tellin' me all o' this. Ah'm certainly not gonna question who Professor X lets in here."

"I'm tellin' ya', mon amour, b'cause ya're part o' de reason I'm here… a big part. De prof. knows dat an' I needed ya' t'know, too." Remy focused intently on her emotional reactions to his revelation. He leaned forward slowly after reading all he could off her and gave her a feather-light kiss, pulling away in time to keep from passing out.

Rogue looked at him with red on black eyes and chided, "Ya' crazy Cajun."

"Aw!" Kitty gushed.

"Woohoo, baby… not bad!" Tabby was shameless in her comment. The rest of the kids shushed her from their place around the corner of the pool house.

"Shut up!" That would be Jubilee.

"Both of y'all are idiots. They've got to know we're here by now thanks to you," and the drawl gave away Sam's identity pretty quickly. Remy and Rogue started to laugh as the disagreement continued.

"Hey, watch it!" they heard from Ray before they heard the sounds of a sizable scuffle and then Jamie's little voice piping up, "OW!"

Apparently whoever got shoved bumped into Jamie and his clones soon filled the area forcing others into the open.

xxxXXXXXxxx

The massive food fight that took place within three days of the announcement that the teams were melding took all the team members six hours to clean up. The destruction Victor caused to the DR a day and a half after that cost several thousand dollars to repair. The numerous romances, break-ups, and new affairs were still being played out now, two months later. Even with all that had passed, including several intriguing changes, things had settled into something of a routine. The mornings began with everyone converging for breakfast at roughly the same time. It was chaotic, but it was still somewhat under control. Victor and Mystique chose to not descend until those still in high school were gone. Rogue, who as a result of her decision to enroll in some extra classes during summer would be graduating at Christmas-time, drove several of the high school students each day. Remy always walked out to see her off and their long hugs somehow came across as hotter than any of Tabby's kisses or those exchanged by Scott and Jean, both of which had been shamelessly watched by the other residents for a long time now.

Jean and Scott were both taking classes at a nearby campus of the university. Today was a day when they both had morning classes, so they were also leaving. Once they were gone only John, Remy, Piotr, Erik, Logan, and Storm remained in the kitchen. Wanda was already in another room with her laptop working on her assignments. Due to how far behind she was academically, she'd chosen to be homeschooled allowing her to move ahead as quickly as her sharp intelligence allowed and preventing the still sometimes volatile teen from dealing with cruel taunts from others. After school she met up with everyone in town for shakes. Remy took her in so that he had an excuse to watch over 'his amour'. "Don' wan' any o' dose garçons (little boys) from town tryin' any moves on mon bel (my beautiful) Rogue."

After a short time hanging out in town, they all headed back. The younger students to work on their homework, and those on active mission status to train. Later the roles would be reversed and the younger students would be put through their paces with Remy and Scott as it had been decided they may have more patience and more realistic expectations than Logan tended to display. Piotr often helped Wanda with her work as he'd shown a tolerance for her frustrated reactions that nobody else seemed to share. Remy would find Rogue when he was done and the pair would be found in one place or another either inside or out on the grounds. They were frequently joined by Kurt, Piotr, Jubilee, Kitty, or Tabitha.

Today, though, they'd all been contacted not long before the final bell sounded at school with the professor's mental request that they return directly as there was need for a meeting. Scott and Jean were already there and Remy had resisted the urge to meet Rogue after school regardless, instead meeting her in the garage as she parked. He wrapped his arms around her waist firmly and placed a lingering kiss atop her head. Remy and the others who were home all day were aware of what was coming and he honestly wasn't certain how the news would be received by his chérie. A little confused but more than willing to enjoy these moments with her boyfriend, Rogue figured she would know all soon enough.

Another intrusive mental nudge from Professor Xavier and they linked fingers as they walked inside. They were the last ones to join the gathering in the rec room. When Erik would have started speaking, Kitty interrupted with the same question Rogue was pondering. "What about the others? Shouldn't we, like, wait for them?" They all glanced around searching for those missing from their numbers.

Rogue had already noted the absence of several people, including Wanda and her brother; Lance, Fred, and Todd; John, and even Mystique. It wasn't like the professor to exclude people this way and Rogue sensed she may know the purpose of this mansion gathering. "They're gone, aren't they?" she asked with her melodic accent tinting the words.

Erik and Charles exchanged a look while Storm stood calmly exuding her motherly-comfort vibe. Logan was the one who answered while Remy tugged her close and tucked her against his comforting side. "Yeah, Stripes; they left earlier today. Different people left for different reasons, but they each made their choice freely and after a lot of thought."

"For the moment, we have all agreed that while we may not be pursuing our goals in the same ways, we are not one another's enemies either. We hope to avoid being on opposing sides, but the truth is we have no idea how long this truce will last. Each team member will have to take different encounters one at a time and evaluate things based purely on what's happening then. It may at times seem difficult, but we know you are all up to the task." That was all the professor said about it.

It was later that night while Remy and Rogue sat together in one of the oversized chairs while the others were scattered around them on sofas, chairs, and the floor that Remy and Piotr gave them more insight.

"Ah get why Victor wanted ta go. It was really hard for him here with all the noise an' smells an' all that. He's not really tha kind o' guy ta live in a school."

"What makes you all Freud-insightful all of a sudden?" Jubilee wondered with a snap of her gum. She held the pack out to Tabitha, who was eying the pink wad with envy. After getting her own piece, she handing the pack back while giving her attention to the conversation.

Rogue tapped her index finger against her temple, "Ah have him up here, remember?"

"But what about Lance and the other Brotherhood boys?" Kitty wanted to know.

This time it was Remy who clued them in, "Dey an' Johnny-boy couldn' take all de rules. Dere are too many restrictions here for dem an' it was jus' too much."

Kitty nodded along with several others who could easily see that being a problem for the rather rebellious guys in question. When Wanda's and Pietro's names came up, Piotr was the one who spoke to the group for the first time that evening. He held out to Rogue and also to Jean white envelopes with Wanda's familiar handwriting on the outside. "Wanda left these for you. I think what you find there will answer your questions and you'll be able to help everyone else understand after you've read them." Rogue noted that underneath her name was the word 'personal' in small print. She tucked it into her pocket to look at later while Jean opened hers and scanned it right away.

"She basically says that she's thankful for all her friends here, but that there are other things she needs to focus on right now that are more important than academics or social skills right now. It's nothing personal, she insists… just the right thing for her."

Piotr now spoke again. "Pietro only said that things were a bit slow for him at the institute." Several people chuckled at that typically Pietro statement and knew it for the truth.

"So," Kurt put in with a drooping tail and a heartfelt sigh, "zat leaves Mystique's reasons." Finally cluing into why he seemed so despondent, Kitty reached out a hand to him, but let it drop when he only stared at the ground. Rogue had moved closer to him before now and she placed one hand on his shoulder.

"Ah wish Ah had answers for ya', mein Bruder (my brother)," she said in German to infuse her sentiment with extra sympathy. He tried to smile at her, but it was far too shaky to be believable. He patted her hand before bamfing away to be alone. In his room waited a different letter. It would be the only letter, barring the note she sent him when informing him of their true relationship, he'd ever receive from his biological mother. He read it through over and over throughout the night. The following day he would show it to Rogue, but for now it was just for him.

It explained her issues with Charles' and Erik's view of human/mutant relations, revealing what she saw as inherent flaws. In it she also told him how much she cherished the brief time they'd had together and how precious it was to her… that she would never forget it. Any time he wanted to speak to her or needed her, she assured him Xavier would know how to reach her. She'd even signed it, 'With love'. No one else would ever see him cry, but Rogue noted the blotted splash marks marring some of the words as she read it through the next morning.

There was a slight pall over the group for several weeks, especially as it seemed the others had not just left the mansion, but had left Bayville entirely. The students were young, though, and bounced back fairly quickly. Soon things were as noisy and frantic as they'd ever been. Erik was actually the person who took the longest to move beyond his disappointment. His children had gone, along with one of his Acolytes and his long-time associate, sometimes friend, and occasional something more… It was a difficult pill to swallow.

So this was the X-Men now. Some would choose to move on to other pursuits after they'd graduated, others would remain as Logan and Storm had done, becoming an integral and important part of the Institute. Even those who remained would take occasional breaks, but certain members always returned. And a few things stayed the same. Charles was the heart of the Institute and would remain so, even after he'd passed on.

Piotr and Kitty would form an incredibly close relationship that would end only after his death, which she mourned deeply. She would go on to work with Pete Wisdom in Europe. Jubilee stayed with the X-Men in a junior role and then as a full-fledged member. Bobby would become romantically involved with a mutant name Lorna and the two would leave together, although it wouldn't last.

Storm was one of the few constants in the lives of the X-Men offering her wisdom and insight as freely as her affection to all who passed through the Institute's doors. Logan may take road trips, disappearing for who-knew-how long at a time but he always came back at just the right moment and his loyalty never failed. Rogue and Remy would fight, face unbelievable challenges and trials, and have to fight for their love against all odds and countless foes… but they never stopped loving one another.


End file.
